憎
zēng

hate

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 曾 represents the sound.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

曾
曾 Sound component
céng already

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsong[ts]ˤəŋhate
Zhengzhangʔsɯːŋ
Unicodetzəng

說文解字

惡也。从心曾聲。

Sources

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