āi​yàn

poignant

āi sad; pity

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
clothes
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)

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

yàn beautiful Simplified

Lush  and sexy 

Components

Meaning component
fēng luxuriant
Meaning component
color

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

yàn plump Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
what? why not?
Sound component
abundant

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglams
Unicodeiɛ̀m

說文解字

好而長也。从豐。豐,大也。盇聲。《春秋傳》曰:“美而豔。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica