利眠宁
lì​mián​níng

chlordiazepoxide

利 lì, li benefit

Depicts harvesting grain (禾) with a blade (刂). Harvest was the main source of profit in agricultural societies.

Components

禾
禾 Iconic component
hé grain stalk
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 11 verified)

黎莉梨犁俐痢蜊猁脷唎悧

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

悧

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartlijHC.ri[t]-s sharp; profit

說文解字

《說文》：“利，銛也。从刀；和然後利，从和省。《易》曰：‘利者，義之和也。’”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

眠 mián close eyes

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 民 represents the sound.

Components

目
目 Meaning component
mù eye
民
民 Sound component
mín people

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmenmˤi[n]shut the eyes; sleep
Zhengzhangmiːn
Unicodemen

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

宁 níng, nìng peaceful, (storage container) Simplified

Original meaning: storage container

Pictograph of a container for storing things. Original form of 貯. In simplified Chinese 宁 is also used to mean "peaceful", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 寧.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

拧狞泞柠咛聍貯苧

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

泞佇

Iconic (1)

貯

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangda
daʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“宁，辨積物也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》 p.1508-1509
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

寧 níng, nìng peaceful Traditional

Depicts a peaceful place with food to eat (寍). 丂 was added to depict a table.

Components

寍
寍 SoundMeaning component
níng peaceful
丂
丂 Iconic component
kǎo, qiǎo, yú axe handle

Depicts a table.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 4 verified)

檸嚀濘擰

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

濘

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnengnˤeŋ peace

說文解字

《說文》：“寧，願詞也。从丂，寍聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)