欢
huān HSK1

happy

Simplified form of 歡. Phonosemantic compound. 欠 represents the meaning and 雚 represents the sound. 欠 (yawn) is a pictograph of a person with an open mouth, used here to represent a person joyfully laughing.

Components

又
又 Simplified component
yòu again

Shorthand for the 雚 component in the traditional character 歡.

欠
欠 Iconic component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person opening their mouth to laugh.

Sources

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

歡 huan, huān happy Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 欠 represents the meaning and 雚 represents the sound. 欠 (yawn) is a pictograph of a person with an open mouth, used here to represent a person joyfully laughing.

Components

雚
雚 Sound component
guàn, huán heron
欠
欠 Iconic component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person opening their mouth to laugh.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagartxwanqʷʰˤar rejoice; joyous

說文解字

《說文》:“歡,喜樂也。从欠,雚聲。”

Sources

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