jiǎnJiǎn HSK7

letter

Original meaning: condense, select

Two dots added to (bind; bunch). Based on the original meaning "condense, select", now written as . The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Meaning component
shù bind
eight

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (8 of 12 verified)

Simplified (2)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkeanXkˤr[a]nʔ select, distinguish

說文解字

《說文》:“柬,分別簡之也。从束,从八。八,分別也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.512-513
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica