天边
tiān​biān

horizon

天 tiān, tian sky

Original meaning: head

Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a head.

大
大 Iconic component
dà, dài big

Depicts a person.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

吞蚕忝祆

Iconic (1)

吴

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

昊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthenl̥ˤi[n] heaven
xenl̥ˤi[n] (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-)heaven

說文解字

《說文》：“天，顛也。至高无上，从一、大。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.40-41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)

边 biān, bian edge Simplified

Simplified form of 邊. Phonosemantic compound. 辶 and 方 represent the meaning, while 自 and 丙 represent the sound. The traditional components 自 and 丙 were removed for simplification.

Components

力
力 Simplified component
lì, li power

Shorthand for the 方 component in the traditional character 邊.

辶
辶 Meaning component
chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

笾

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

邊 biān, bian edge Traditional

Phonosemantic compound with two sound components and two meaning components. 辶 and 方 represent the meaning, while 自 and 丙 represent the sound.

Components

自
自 Sound component
zì (nose), self

自 was the original form of 鼻 (bí; nose).

丙
丙 Sound component
bǐng third
方
方 Meaning component
fāng, fang square
辶
辶 Meaning component
chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpenpˤe[n] side

Sources

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