污蔑
wū​miè

slander

污 wū filthy

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 亏 (于) represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

water

于
于 Sound component
yú at

亏 and 于 both come from the same ancient character.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'waeqʷˤra impure, vile

說文解字

《說文》：“汙，薉也。一曰小池為汙。一曰涂也。从水，于聲。”

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)

蔑 miè disdain Simplified

Depicts a person with eyebrows (𦰋) being struck by a weapon (戈).

Components

𦰋
𦰋 Iconic component
méng eyesight obscured

Depicts a person with eyebrows.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𦰋 than it was in ancient scripts.
戈
戈 Iconic component
gē spear

Depicts a weapon.


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
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
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

蠛襪衊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmetmˤet destroy; not have

說文解字

《說文》：“蔑，勞，目無精也。从，人勞則蔑然，从戍。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.297-298
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

衊 miè smear Traditional

To  蔑 with smeared blood 血; 蔑 provides the pronunciation

Components

血
血 Meaning component
xuè, xiě blood
蔑
蔑 Sound component
miè disdain

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmeːd

說文解字

《說文》：“衊，污血也。从血，蔑聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)