奸邪
jiān​xié

villain

奸 jiān wicked

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 干 represents the sound. Simplified form of 姦.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
干
干 Sound component
gàn, gān interfere

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkankˤa[r]treacherous
Zhengzhangkaːn

說文解字

犯婬也。从女从干，干亦聲。

Sources

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

邪 xié evil

Original meaning: place name

Phonosemantic compound. 牙 represents the sound and ⻏ represents the meaning. Based on the original use as a place name. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

牙
牙 Sound component
yá tooth
Change in sound
⻏
⻏ Meaning component
yì city
Change in meaning
⻏ hints at the original meaning of 邪, "place name", which is no longer the most common meaning of 邪 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

琊铘

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

铘

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzjaesə.ɢA awry
zjosə.la walk slowly
yaeɢ(r)A 琅邪 (name of a mountain in Shāndōng)
yae[ɢ](r)A (interrogative particle)

說文解字

《說文》：“邪，琅邪郡。从邑，牙聲。”

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)