暧昧
ài​mèi

dubious

暧 ài obscure Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 爱 represents the sound. Simplified form of 曖.

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
爱
爱 Sound component
ài love

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

昧 mèi obscure

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

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
未
未 Sound component
wèi not yet

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmwojHmˤ[u][t]-sdusk; dark
Zhengzhangmɯːds
Unicodemə̀i

說文解字

爽，旦明也。从日未聲。一曰闇也。

Sources

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

曖 obscure Traditional

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

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
愛
愛 Sound component
ài love

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqɯːds
qaːds

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang