挑灯
tiǎo​dēng

light

挑 tiāo, tiǎo carry on the shoulder, pick

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 兆 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

兆
兆 Sound component
zhào omen

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthewl̥ˤew scratch, stir up
dewXlˤewʔ provoke

說文解字

《說文》：“挑，撓也。从手，兆聲。一曰摷也。《國語》曰：‘郤至挑夭。’”

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)

灯 dēng lantern Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 丁 represents the sound. Simplified form of 燈.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
丁
丁 Sound component
dīng cubes

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

燈 dēng lantern Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 登 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
登
登 Sound component
dēng rise

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttongk-tˤəŋ lamp

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica