床垫
chuáng​diàn

mattress

床 chuáng bed

Depicts a bed (爿) made from wood (木). Originally written as 爿 or 牀.

Components

爿
爿 SoundIconic component
pán, qiáng piece of wood

Depicts a bed.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 爿 than it was in ancient scripts.
木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzrjangk.dzraŋbed
Zhengzhangzraŋ
Unicodejrhiɑng

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.489-490漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

垫 diàn advance money Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 执 represents the sound. Simplified form of 墊.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
执
执 Sound component
zhí hold in hand

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

墊 diàn advance money Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 執 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
執
執 Sound component
zhí hold in hand

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttemH[t]ˤ[i]m-sdescend
tep[t]ˤip(place in Sìchuān, no pre-Hàn text)
Zhengzhangtiːms
diːb

說文解字

下也。《春秋傳》曰：“墊隘。”从土執聲。

Sources

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