弱碱
ruò​jiǎn

weak base

弱 ruò weak

Original meaning: urinate

Depicts two people urinating (尿). Based on the original meaning "urinate", now written as 尿/溺. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

尿
尿 Iconic component
niào urine
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 尿 than it was in ancient scripts.
尿
尿 Iconic component
niào urine
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 尿 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

溺搦蒻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyaknewk weak

說文解字

《說文》：“弱，橈也，上象橈曲，彡象毛氂橈弱也。弱物并，故从二。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.705
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

碱 jiǎn alkaline Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 石 represents the meaning and 咸 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鹼.

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone
咸
咸 Sound component
xián all

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

鹼 jiǎn alkaline Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 鹵 represents the meaning and 僉 represents the sound.

Components

鹵
鹵 Meaning component
salt
僉
僉 Sound component
together

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkreːmʔ
skʰlam

說文解字

鹵也。从鹽省，僉聲。

Sources

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