qí​bàn

banner petal

banner

Phonosemantic compound.  represents the meaning and  represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
yǎn flags flying
Sound component
its, his, (3p possessive)

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 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-Sagartgi[g](r)ə flag

說文解字

《說文》:“旗,熊旗五游,以象罰星,士卒以為期。从,其聲。《周禮》曰:‘率都建旗。’”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

bàn petal

Original meaning: melon seeds

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Meaning component
guā melon

melon

Sound component
biàn criminals accusing one another

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangbreːns

說文解字

《說文》:“瓣,瓜中實。从瓜,辡聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica