参军 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

cān, shēn take part in Simplified

Original meaning: Three Stars constellation

Simplified form of 參. Depicts three (三) stars (晶) shining (光). Originally represented the Three Stars constellation (參) in Chinese astronomy. The more common meaning "take part in" is a phonetic loan.

Components

晶 Iconic Simplified component

jīng bright, crystal

Depicts three stars joined together

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 晶 than it was in ancient scripts.

光 Iconic Remnant component

guāng light

三 Sound Meaning component

sān three

Component uses

Sound (0 of 8 verified)

惨渗掺碜糁骖毵黪

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese
Unicode	chrim
	shrim
	tsom

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

jūn army Simplified

Simplified form of 軍. Phonosemantic compound. 勻 represents the sound and 車 represents the meaning.

Components

勻 Sound Remnant component

yún equal

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 勻 than it was in ancient scripts.

车 Meaning component

chē cart, vehicle

Component uses

Sound (2 of 11 verified)

挥辉浑晕晖荤诨恽郓珲皲

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

恽

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

cān, shēn take part in Traditional

Original meaning: Three Stars constellation

Depicts three (三) stars (晶) shining (光). Originally represented the Three Stars constellation (參) in Chinese astronomy. The more common meaning "take part in" is a phonetic loan.

Components

晶 Iconic component

jīng bright, crystal

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 晶 than it was in ancient scripts.

光 Iconic Remnant component

guāng light

三 Sound Meaning component

sān three

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

摻慘滲

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tshom	r̥ˤəʔ	accumulate
	tsrhim	[tsʰr][u]m	參差 tsrhim.tsrhje uneven
	sam	s.rum (s.r- > s-; infl. by 四 s-?)	three
	srim	srum (should be *s.rum)	the constellation Orion’ (named for the three stars in Orion’s belt)