失眠症
shī​mián​zhèng

insomnia

失 shī lose

Original meaning: leisure; carefree

Depicts a person with their hair loose. Based on the original meaning "leisure; carefree", now written as 佚. The meaning later shifted to "lose" and "fail".

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 11 verified)

铁跌秩迭轶帙鉄瓞袟泆軼

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

跌佚

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyitl̥i[t] lose

說文解字

《說文》：“失，縱也。从手，乙聲。”

Sources

Character origin
何景成《甲骨文字詁林補編》p.26黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3349
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

眠 mián close eyes

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 民 represents the sound.

Components

目
目 Meaning component
mù eye
民
民 Sound component
mín people

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmenmˤi[n]shut the eyes; sleep
Zhengzhangmiːn
Unicodemen

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

症 zhèng disease

Phonosemantic compound. 疒 represents the meaning and 正 represents the sound. Simplified form of 癥.

Components

疒
疒 Meaning component
nè sick
正
正 Sound component
zhèng, zheng, zhēng correct

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtjɯŋs

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang