昌披

昌 chāng, chàng prosperous

Original meaning: call loudly

Originally composed of 口 (mouth) and 日 (sun), representing a call in the morning to wake people up at sunrise to start working. Based on the original meaning "call loudly", now written as 唱. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

日
日 Iconic component
rì sun
口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

The modern form looks like 曰 (to speak).

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 口 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 9 verified)

唱倡猖娼菖阊鲳閶鯧

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

倡阊閶

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰjaŋ
Unicodechiɑng

說文解字

《說文》：“昌，美言也。从日，从曰。一曰日光也。《詩》曰：‘東方昌矣。’，籀文昌。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.536
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

披 pī wear

To put on 扌 fur 皮; 皮 also provides the pronunciation

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand
皮
皮 SoundMeaning component
pí skin

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartphjepʰ(r)ajdivide
Zhengzhangpʰral
pʰralʔ
Unicodepyɛ

說文解字

从㫄持曰披。从手皮聲。

Sources

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