熊蜂
xióng​fēng

bumblebee

熊 xióng a bear

Combination of 能 (bear) and 大 (big).

Components

能
能 Iconic component
néng to be able

Pictograph of a bear.

大
大 Iconic component
dà, dài big
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 大 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

羆

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjuwngC.[ɢ]ʷ(r)əm bear (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“熊，獸，似豕，山居，冬蟄。从能，炎省聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.753
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

蜂 fēng bee

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

insect

夆
夆 Sound component
féng, páng resist

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartphjowngpʰ(r)oŋbee
Zhengzhangboːŋ
pʰoŋ
Unicodebiong

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica