Simplified
Original meaning: peace and happiness
Phonosemantic compound. 宀 represents the meaning and 妟 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "peace and happiness". The meaning later shifted to "banquet", "feast", and "to entertain".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'enH | ʔˤe[n]-s | feast (n.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“宴，安也。从宀，晏聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.657
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
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
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | xwan | qʷʰˤar | 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
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)