晦涩
huì​sè

obscure

晦 huì dark

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 每 represents the sound.

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
每
每 Sound component
měi every

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxwojHm̥ ˤək-slast day of a moon; dark
Zhengzhanghmɯːs
Unicodexuə̀i

說文解字

月盡也。从日每聲。

Sources

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

涩 sè astringent Simplified

Original meaning: unsmooth

Simplified form of 澀. Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaningSimplified component
sè, shà unsmooth

Sources

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

澀 astringent Traditional

Original meaning: unsmooth

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaning component
sè, shà unsmooth

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsrɯb
Unicodeshrip

Sources

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