小鬟
xiǎo​huán

slave girl

小 xiǎo small

Depicts three small dots, representing the meaning "small". Originally the same character as 少. The small dots possibly represent grains of sand (沙).

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 Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (3 of 8 verified)

孙尖尘肖隙尕尜尗

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

肖県

Iconic (2)

𭕆𧴪

Simplified (1)

孙

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsjewX[s]ewʔ small

說文解字

《說文》：“小，物之微也。从八，丨見而分之。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.79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)

鬟 huán dress hair in coiled knot

A round 睘 topknot 髟; 睘 also provides the pronunciation

Components

髟
髟 Meaning component
biāo, piào, shān long hair
睘
睘 SoundMeaning component
qióng round

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangɡʷraːn
Unicodehuan

說文解字

緫髮也。从髟睘聲。案：古婦人首飾，琢玉爲兩環。此二字皆後人所加。

Sources

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