wǔ​cān HSK2

lunch

wǔ, wu noon

Original meaning: pestle

Pictograph of a pestle used for pounding rice, now written as . The current meaning "noon" is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 (4 of 7 verified)

Iconic (2)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnguX[m].qʰˤaʔ 7th earthly branch
nguXm-qʰˤaʔ resist; cross-wise

說文解字

《說文》:“午,啎也。五月陰氣午逆陽,冒地而出。此予矢同意。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

cān eat

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and 𣦼 represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shí, shi eat
𣦼
𣦼 Sound component
cán to damage and pierce

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰaːn
Unicodetsɑn

說文解字

《說文》:“餐,吞也。从食,聲。湌,餐或从水。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica