永眠 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

yǒngmián

rest eternally

yǒng long

Pictograph of a long river with a tributary.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 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

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 5 verified)

泳咏昶詠羕

Meaning (2 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hjwaengX	[ɢ]ʷraŋʔ	long (time)

說文解字

《說文》：“永，長也，象水巠理之長。《詩》曰：‘江之永矣’。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.808
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

mián close eyes

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 民 represents the sound.

Components

目 Meaning component

mù eye

民 Sound component

mín people

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	men	mˤi[n]	shut the eyes; sleep
Zhengzhang		miːn
Unicode	men

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart Zhengzhang Shangfang