悲凉
bēi​liáng

sorrowful

悲 bēi sorrow

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 非 represents the sound.

Components

非
非 Sound component
fēi not
心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpijprəj sad

說文解字

《說文》：“悲，痛也。从心，非聲。”

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)

凉 liáng cool Simplified

Original meaning: light alcohol, dilute wine

Phonosemantic compound. 冫 is a simplification of 氵 (water), based on the original meaning "light alcohol, dilute wine". 京 represents the sound. Simplified form of 涼.

Components

冫
冫 MeaningSimplified component
bīng ice

氵 was simplified to 冫.

京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city
Change in sound

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫康熙字典
Readings & variants
Unicode

涼 liáng cool Traditional

Original meaning: light alcohol, dilute wine

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 京 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city
Change in sound

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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartljangC.raŋ cold

說文解字

《說文》：“涼，薄也。从水，京聲。”

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)