shàn​dài

treat well

shàn good

Composed of two (speech) components and (sheep). In ancient China sheep () were associated with goodness and beauty, which is why is a component in characters like (beautiful), (benevolent), and (justice).

Components

Meaning component
yáng sheep
Sound component
yán speech
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 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 7 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyenX[g]e[n]ʔ good

說文解字

《說文》:“譱,吉也。从誩,从羊。此與義、美同意。,篆文从言。”

Sources

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

dài wait, stay, treat

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
chì, fú walk

is a component form of .

Sound component
sì, shì temple
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdojX[d]ˤəʔ wait on; depend on

說文解字

《說文》:“待,竢也。从彳,寺聲。”

Sources

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