yāo​shāng

die young

yāo, wò, wāi die young

Depicts a person walking quickly. Original form of . Relation to current meaning unclear.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

Iconic (2)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jew[ʔ](r)aw delicate, slender

說文解字

《說文》:“夭,屈也。从大,象形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.767-768漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

shāng die young Simplified

Components

Meaning component
dǎi, è, dāi evil, bad

death

Sound component
yáng bright

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

die young Traditional

Components

Meaning component
dǎi, è, dāi evil, bad

death

Sound component
yáng bright

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhanghljaŋ

說文解字

不成人也。人年十九至十六死,爲長殤;十五至十二死,爲中殤;十一至八歲死,爲下殤。从歺,傷省聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica