Jì Xiàn​lín

Ji Xianlin

season

Original meaning: youngest, small grains

represents short stalks of grain, represents a young child. Based on the original meaning "youngest, small grains". The meaning later shifted to "crops", and "season".

Components

Meaning component
grain stalk
Meaning component
zi, zǐ child

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
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 (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjwijHkʷi[t]-s youngest

說文解字

《說文》:“季,少偁也。从子,从稚省,稚亦聲。”

Sources

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

xiàn desire, envy Simplified

Depicts a person salivating () when seeing a tasty sheep () that they have a desire to eat.

Components

Iconic component
yáng sheep
xián spit, saliva

Modern form looks like .

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

lín forest

Combination of two trees ().

Components

Iconic component
tree
Iconic component
tree

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 10 verified)

Meaning (1 of 6 verified)

Iconic (4)

Simplified (1)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlim[r]əm forest

說文解字

《說文》:“林,平土有叢木曰林。从二木。”

Sources

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

xiàn envy, desire Traditional

Depicts a person salivating () when seeing a tasty sheep () that they have a desire to eat.

Components

Iconic component
yáng sheep
SoundIconic component
xián spit, saliva

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzjenHs-N-qa[r]-s covet, desire
zjenHs-[ɢ]a[n]-s surplus, affluence
yen[ɢ]a[n] extend; go forward

說文解字

《說文》:“羨,貪欲也。从,从羑省。羑呼之羑,文王所拘羑里。”

Sources

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