巴拿芬
bā​ná​fēn

paraffin

巴 ba, bā to wish

Depicts a person grabbing something with their hand. Original form of 把. In modern Chinese this character is usually used only for its sound.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 18 verified)

把吧爸爬疤芭靶琶笆耙粑杷鲃钯岜鈀䰾皅

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpaepˤra snake
paepˤra [place name]

說文解字

《說文》：“巴，蟲也。或曰食象蛇。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.1637
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

拿 ná take

Originally written as a hand (手) taking an object. Later written as 拏 with the phonetic 奴 component added. Later the 奴 component was corrupted to 合.

Components

奴
奴 Sound component
nú slave

Later corrupted to the visually similar character 合.

手
手 Meaning component
shǒu, shou hand

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

镎

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

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

芬 fēn fragrance

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 分 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

分
分 Sound component
fēn, fèn, fen divide

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpʰɯn
Unicodepiən

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica