甘丹寺
Gān​dān​sì

Ganden Monastery

甘 gān sweetness

Pictograph of something sweet inside the mouth (口).

Components

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts something sweet inside the mouth.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 14 verified)

敢钳酣邯柑苷绀蚶泔疳坩紺拑鉗

Meaning (3 of 8 verified)

香智甜柑苷甙蚶泔

Iconic (5)

某甚鲁猒魯

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

嵌

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkam[k]ˤ[a]m sweet

說文解字

《說文》：“甘，美也。从口含一。一，道也。”

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)

丹 dān, dan cinnabar

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar found in a well for mining.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar.

井
井 Iconic component
jǐng well

Depicts a well for mining.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

坍旃

Meaning (2)

彤旃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttantˤan cinnabar

說文解字

《說文》：“丹，巴越之赤石也。象采丹井，一象丹形。，古文丹。，亦古文丹。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.426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)

寺 sì, shì temple

Original meaning: to hold

Phonosemantic compound. 又 represents the meaning and 之 represents the sound. 又 was later reanalyzed as 寸, which also depicts a hand. Based on the original meaning "to hold", now written as 持. The current meaning "temple" is a phonetic loan.

Components

之
之 Sound component
zhī [attributive particle]
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 之 than it was in ancient scripts.
寸
寸 Meaning component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Originally 又 but later reanalyzed as 寸. Depicts a hand.

Change in meaning
寸 hints at the original meaning of 寺, "to hold", which is no longer the most common meaning of 寺 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (7 of 11 verified)

等特持待诗侍峙恃痔詩時

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartziHs-[d]əʔ-s hall

說文解字

《說文》：“寺，廷也，有法度者也。从寸，之聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.234漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.242-243
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)