水仙
shuǐ​xiān

aquatic immortal

水 shuǐ water

Depicts the flow of water in a river.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (4 of 14 verified)

冰浆汞泵颍滕淼荥凼氽汆滎氹漿

Iconic (8)

益泰泉尿沓盥彔眔

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsywijXs.turʔ (E dialect: *-r > *-j)water; river

說文解字

《說文》：“水，準也。北方之行。象眾水並流，中有微陽之气也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.795
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

仙 xian, xiān Taoist super-being

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 山 represents the sound. Simplified form of 僊.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

山
山 Sound component
shān mountain

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagartsjen[s]a[r]immortal (n.)
Zhengzhangsen
Unicodesiɛn
siɛn

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica