xìn

fontanel

Depicts the gap between the bones in an infant skull.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3)

Unknown (1 of 3 verified)

Iconic (3)

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

Simplified (2)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsinH[s]ə[r]-s fontanel

說文解字

《說文》:“囟,頭會匘蓋也。象形。,或从肉、宰。,古文囟字。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.785
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica