yán​lì

follow precedent

沿 yán, yàn follow a course

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

water

Sound component
yǎn a marsh at the foot of the hills

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartywenlon go along (a river); follow

說文解字

《說文》:“沿,緣水而下也。从水,聲。《春秋傳》曰:‘王沿夏。’”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

example

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rén person

is a component form of .

Sound component
liè arrange

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangreds

說文解字

《說文》:“例,比也。从人,聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica