探问
tàn​wèn

ask after

探 tàn, tan explore, find

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

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

罙
罙 Sound component
shēn deep
Change in sound

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthoml̥ˤ[ə]m put the hand into and test

說文解字

《說文》：“，遠取之也。从手，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)

问 wèn, wen ask (about) Simplified

Simplified form of 問. Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 门 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
门
门 Sound component
mén, men door

Sources

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

問 wèn, wen ask (about) Traditional

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

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
門
門 Sound component
mén, men door

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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-SagartmjunHC.mu[n]-s ask

說文解字

《說文》：“問，訊也。从口，門聲。”

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)