慰唁
wèi​yàn

condole

慰 wèi comfort

Components

尉
尉 Sound component
wèi, yù, yùn officer
心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

heart

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartʔjwɨjHʔut-scomfort, soothe (v.)
Zhengzhangquds
Unicodeqiuə̀i

說文解字

安也。从心尉聲。一曰恚怒也。

Sources

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

唁 yàn express condolence

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 言 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
言
言 Sound component
yán speech

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangŋrans

說文解字

弔生也。从口言聲。《詩》曰：“歸唁衞侯。”

Sources

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