Original meaning: tall
Pictograph of a person standing erect with something above the head, based on the original meaning "tall". The meaning later shifted to "outstanding" and "profound".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | traewk | tˤrawk | high; splendid |
說文解字
《說文》：“，高也。早匕為，匕卪為卬，皆同義。卓，古文。”
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)
Original meaning: burn
Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 肰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burn", now written as 燃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyen | [n]a[n] | so, thus; (adv suffix) |
說文解字
《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”
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)