外电 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

wàidiàn

foreign dispatches

wài outside

Phonosemantic compound. 卜 represents the meaning and 月 represents the sound.

Components

卜 Iconic component

bo fortune telling

Depicts the cracks on the outside of a turtle shell.

月 Sound component

yuè, yue moon

Looks like 夕, which is also a pictograph of a moon.

Change in sound

外 and 月 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
外 *[ŋ]ʷˤa[t]-s
月 *[ŋ]ʷat

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 月 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Warring States 475-221 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 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngwajH	[ŋ]ʷˤa[t]-s	outside

說文解字

《說文》：“外，遠也。卜尚平旦，今夕卜，於事外矣。，古文外。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.555-556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)

diàn electricity Simplified

Original meaning: lightning

Simplified form of 電, which depicts lightning (申) during a rainstorm (雨). The 雨 component was deleted for simplification.

Components

雨 Deleted component

yǔ rain

申 Sound Iconic component

shēn to extend

Depicts lightning.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.981-982
Readings & variants: Unicode

diàn electricity Traditional

Original meaning: lightning

Depicts lightning (申) during a rainstorm (雨).

Components

雨 Meaning component

yǔ rain

申 Sound Iconic component

shēn to extend

Depicts lightning.

Change in sound

電 and 申 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
電 *lˤi[n]-s
申 *l̥i[n]

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	denH	lˤi[n]-s	lightning

說文解字

《說文》：“電，陰陽激燿也。从雨，从申。，古文電。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.981-982
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)