殷
yǐnyīnYīnyān HSK7

late Shang dynasty, many

Original meaning: intense pain from an illness

Depicts a person with a swollen abdomen (㐆) receiving an acupuncture from a hand holding a needle (殳). Based on the original meaning "intense pain from an illness". The meaning later shifted to "abundant" and "many" while it's other meaning used as the name of a dynasty at the end of the Shang dynasty is a phonetic loan.

Components

㐆
㐆 SoundIconic component
yǐn to turn the body

Depicts a person with a swollen abdomen.

殳
殳 Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Depicts a hand holding a needle.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'eanʔˤrə[r] dark-red
'j+nʔə[r] 殷殷 distressed
'j+nʔə[r] ample, many
'j+nʔər (dynastic name)

說文解字

《說文》：“殷，作樂之盛稱殷。从，从殳。《易》曰：‘殷薦之上帝。’”

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)