清寒
qīng​hán

crisp and clear

清 qīng clear

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

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

青
青 Sound component
qīng green or blue

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttshjengtsʰeŋ clear (adj.)

說文解字

《說文》：“清，朖也，澂水之皃。从水，青聲。”

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)

寒 hán cold

Depicts a person (人) under a roof (宀) surrounding himself with grass bedding (茻) to try to stay warm in the cold weather. The 冫 (ice) component was added later.

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
茻
茻 Iconic component
mǎng, mǔ vegetation, overgrown weeds

Depicts grass bedding.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 茻 than it was in ancient scripts.
人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Depicts a person trying to stay warm.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.
冫
冫 Meaning component
bīng ice

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蹇

Remnant (0 of 1 verified)

蹇

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthanCə.[g]ˤa[n] cold

說文解字

《說文》：“寒，凍也。从人在宀下，以茻薦覆之，下有仌。”

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)