夤夜
yín​yè

late at night

夤 yín distant place

Components

夕
夕 Meaning component
xī evening

night

寅
寅 Sound component
yín 3rd earthly branch

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyin[ɢ[(r)ə[r]small of the back, region of the reins
Zhengzhanglin
Unicodein

說文解字

敬惕也。从夕寅聲。《易》曰：“夕惕若夤。”

Sources

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

夜 yè night

Phonosemantic compound. 夕 represents the meaning and 亦 represents the sound.

Components

夕
夕 Meaning component
xī evening

Pictograph of the moon.

亦
亦 Sound component
yì also
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 亦 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

液腋掖

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyaeH[ɢ]Ak-s night

說文解字

《說文》：“夜，舍也。天下休舍也。从夕，亦省聲。”

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)