寒蝉
hán​chán

cicada

寒 hán cold

Depicts a person (人) under a roof (宀) surrounding himself with grass bedding (茻) to try to stay warm in the cold weather. The 冫 (ice) component was added later.

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
茻
茻 Iconic component
mǎng, mǔ vegetation, overgrown weeds

Depicts grass bedding.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 茻 than it was in ancient scripts.
人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Depicts a person trying to stay warm.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.
冫
冫 Meaning component
bīng ice

Character Evolution

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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蹇

Remnant (0 of 1 verified)

蹇

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthanCə.[g]ˤa[n] cold

說文解字

《說文》：“寒，凍也。从人在宀下，以茻薦覆之，下有仌。”

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)

蝉 chán cicada Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 单 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蟬.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
单
单 Sound component
dān single

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

蟬 chán cicada Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 單 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
單
單 Sound component
dān single

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyen[d]a[r]cicada
Zhengzhangdjan
Unicodezhiɛn

說文解字

以㫄鳴者。从虫單聲。

Sources

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