昙花
tán​huā

Dutchman's pipe cactus

昙 tán, yù become cloudy Simplified

Depicts the sun (日) behind a cloud (云). Simplified form of 曇.

Components

日
日 Iconic component
rì sun
云
云 Iconic component
yún clouds

Sources

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

花 huā, hua flower

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 化 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

化
化 Sound component
huà change

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)

Sources

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

曇 become cloudy Traditional

Depicts the sun (日) behind a cloud (雲).

Components

日
日 Iconic component
rì sun
雲
雲 Iconic component
clouds

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangduːm

說文解字

《說文新附》：“曇，雲布也。从日、雲會意。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)