壁龛
bì​kān

niche

壁 bì wall

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 辟 represents the sound.

Components

辟
辟 Sound component
pì, bì law
土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpekC.pˤek house wall

說文解字

《說文》：“壁，垣也。从土，辟聲。”

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)

龛 kān, kè niche Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 龙 represents the meaning and 合 represents the sound. Simplified form of 龕.

Components

龙
龙 Meaning component
lóng dragon
合
合 Sound component
hé to join

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

龕 niche Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 龍 represents the meaning and 合 represents the sound.

Components

龍
龍 Meaning component
lóng dragon
合
合 Sound component
hé to join

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰuːm

說文解字

龍皃。从龍合聲。

Sources

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