惊
jīng HSK4

startle, frighten

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 京 represents the sound. Simplified form of 驚.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

驚 jīng startle, frighten Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 馬 represents the meaning and 敬 represents the sound.

Components

敬
敬 Sound component
jìng respect
馬
馬 Meaning component
mǎ horse

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
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-Sagartkjaengkreŋ be afraid

說文解字

《說文》：“驚，馬駭也。从馬，敬聲。”

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)