宝成铁路 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

bǎo treasure Simplified

Simplified form of 寶. Depicts an assortment of valuable things, such as jade (玉), being stored safely under a roof (宀).

Components

宀 Iconic component

mián roof

玉 Iconic component

yù jade

Sources

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

chéng, cheng completed

Original meaning: city

Depicts defending city walls (丁) with an axe (戌). 丁 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "city", now written as 城. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

戌 Iconic component

xū, qu 11th terrestrial branch

Depicts an axe.

丁 Sound Iconic component

dīng cubes

Depicts city walls.

Change in sound

成 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
成 *[d]eŋ
丁 *tˤeŋ

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (4 of 6 verified)

城盛诚晟铖誠

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzyeng	[d]eŋ	to become (v.i.)
	dzyeng	m-[d]eŋ	to complete (tr. v)

說文解字

《說文》：“成，就也。从戊，丁聲。，古文成从午。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.963-964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)

tiě iron Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 失 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鐵.

Components

钅 Meaning component

jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

失 Sound component

shī lose

Change in sound

铁 and 失 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
铁 *l̥ˤik
失 *l̥i[t]

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

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

lù road

Phonosemantic compound. 足 represents the meaning and 各 represents the sound.

Components

足 Meaning component

zú foot

各 Sound component

gè each

Change in sound

路 and 各 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
路 *Cə.rˤak-s
各 *kˤak

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

露璐潞鹭鷺

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	luH	Cə.rˤak-s	road

說文解字

《說文》：“路，道也。从足，从各。”

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)

bǎo treasure Traditional

Depicts an assortment of valuable things, including jade (玉) and shells (貝), being stored safely under a roof (宀). The 缶 component represents the sound.