玄妙
xuán​miào

abstruse

玄 xuán, xuàn black

Originally the same character as 幺. Similar to 幺, with an distinguishing mark at the top.

Components

亠
亠 Distinguishing component
tóu head
幺
幺 Iconic component
yāo tiny

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 10 verified)

畜弦眩舷炫铉泫痃牽鉉

Iconic (2)

鲧鯀

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwen[ɢ]ʷˤi[n] dark

說文解字

《說文》：“玄，幽遠也。黑而有赤色者為玄。象幽而入覆之也。，古文玄。”

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)

妙 miào mysterious

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 少 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
少
少 Sound component
shǎo, shao, shào few

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmjiewH[m]ew(ʔ)-s marvelous

Sources

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