Sòng Měi​líng

Soong Mei-ling

sòng Song dynasty

Original meaning: dwelling

Depicts a building () made of wood (). Based on the original meaning "dwelling". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
mián roof
Iconic component
tree

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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsowngH[s]ˤuŋ-s (place name)

說文解字

《說文》:“宋,居也。从宀,从木。”

Sources

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

měi beautiful

Pictograph of a person with ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Components

Iconic component
yáng sheep

Depicts ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Iconic component
dà, dài big

Used here as a pictograph of 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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmijX[m]rəjʔ beautiful

說文解字

《說文》:“美,甘也。从羊,从大。”

Sources

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

líng age Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 齿 represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

齿
齿 Meaning component
chǐ teeth
Sound component
lìng command

Sources

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

líng age Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
chǐ teeth
Sound component
lìng command

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangreːŋ
Unicodeleng

說文解字

《說文新附》:“齡,年也。从齒,令聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica