桑植县 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

sāng mulberry tree

Depicts the leaves of a mulberry tree (木). The leaves from a mulberry tree were the food silkworms would eat.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts the leaves from the mulberry trees. Modern form looks like unrelated 叒.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 7 verified)

丧嗓搡颡磉喪顙

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sang	[s]ˤaŋ	mulberry tree

說文解字

《說文》：“桑，蠶所食葉木。从叒、木。”

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)

zhí plant

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

Components

木 Meaning component

mù tree

直 Sound component

zhí straight

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	driH	N-t<r>ək-s	grow, flourish
	driH	m-t<r>ək-s	to plant, set upright
	dzyik	m-tək	to plant; plants

說文解字

《說文》：“植，戶植也。从木，直聲。，或从置。”

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)

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

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

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.