沾染 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

zhānrǎn

gain advantage

zhān moisten

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 占 represents the sound. Simplified form of 霑.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

占 Sound component

zhàn divine

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

霑

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	trjem	[t]rem	moisten
Zhengzhang		tem
		teːms
		tʰeːm
Unicode	djiɛm

說文解字

水。出壺關，東入淇。一曰沾，益也。从水占聲。

Sources

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

rǎn dye, infect, be contagious

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 杂 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

杂 Sound component

zá mixed, various

Change in sound

染 and 杂 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyemX	C.n[a]mʔ	to dye

說文解字

《說文》：“染，以繒染為色。从水，杂聲。”

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)

沾 zhān moisten

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

染 rǎn dye, infect, be contagious

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

zhān moisten

rǎn dye, infect, be contagious