哀婉
āi​wǎn

melancholy

哀 āi sad; pity

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 衣 represents the sound.

Components

衣
衣 Sound component
yī clothes
口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth

mouth

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

锿

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'ojʔˤəj to pity; sad

說文解字

《說文》：“哀，閔也。从口，衣聲。”

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)

婉 wǎn amiable

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 宛 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
宛
宛 Sound component
wǎn, yuān, yǔn winding

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartʔjwonX[ʔ]o[n]ʔbeautiful
Zhengzhangqonʔ
Unicodeqiuæ̌n

說文解字

順也。从女宛聲。《春秋傳》曰：“太子痤婉。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)