lín​sǒu

woods and marshes

lín forest

Combination of two trees ().

Components

Iconic component
tree
Iconic component
tree

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 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 (3 of 10 verified)

Meaning (1 of 6 verified)

Iconic (4)

Simplified (1)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlim[r]əm forest

說文解字

《說文》:“林,平土有叢木曰林。从二木。”

Sources

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

sǒu, shǔ, còu marsh Simplified

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

grass

Sound component
shù, shǔ, shu number

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

marsh Traditional

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

grass

Sound component
shù, shǔ, shu number

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsloːʔ

說文解字

大澤也。从艸𢿙聲。九州之藪:楊州具區,荆州雲夢,豫州甫田,青州孟諸,沇州大野,雝州弦圃,幽州奚養,冀州楊紆,并州昭餘祁是也。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica