zhào​zhǔn

aim

zhào shine

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
zhāo, zhào bright

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyewHtaw-s shine on

說文解字

《說文》:“照,明也。从火,昭聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

zhǔn accurate Simplified

Original meaning: water-level

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "water-level", a tool to check the flatness of surfaces. The meaning later shifted to "accurate", "rule", and "approve".

Components

Simplified component
bīng ice

Shorthand for the (water) component in the traditional character .

Simplified component
zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Shorthand for the (sǔn) component in the traditional character .

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqʷjinʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

accurate Traditional

Original meaning: water-level

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "water-level", a tool to check the flatness of surfaces. The meaning later shifted to "accurate", "rule", and "approve".

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

Sound component
sǔn falcon

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsywinXturʔ water-level

說文解字

《說文》:“準,平也。从水,隼聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica