杨亿
Yáng Yì

Yang Yi

杨 yáng willow Simplified

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

tree

昜
昜 Unknown component
yáng bright

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

亿 yì hundred million Simplified

Original meaning: quiet; at rest

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 乙 represents the sound. Simplified form of 億. Based on the original meaning "quiet; at rest". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

Change in meaning
亻 hints at the original meaning of 亿, "quiet; at rest", which is no longer the most common meaning of 亿 in modern Mandarin.
乙
乙 Sound component
yǐ second

Sources

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

楊 yáng willow Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 昜 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
昜
昜 Sound component
yáng bright

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyanglaŋpoplar
Zhengzhanglaŋ
Unicodeiɑng

說文解字

木也。从木昜聲。

Sources

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

億 yì hundred million Traditional

Original meaning: quiet; at rest

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 意 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "quiet; at rest". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

Change in meaning
亻 hints at the original meaning of 億, "quiet; at rest", which is no longer the most common meaning of 億 in modern Mandarin.
意
意 Sound component
yì, yi thought

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'ikʔ(r)ək 100,000

說文解字

《說文》：“億，安也。从人，意聲。”

Sources

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