甘泉县 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gān sweetness

Pictograph of something sweet inside the mouth (口).

Components

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts something sweet inside the mouth.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kam	[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)

quán spring

Depicts water (水) coming out of a crack in a rock.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a crack in a rock. Unrelated to 白 (white).

水 Iconic component

shuǐ water

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

原腺線

Iconic (1)

原

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzjwen	s-N-ɢʷar (MC I!)	spring, source

說文解字

《說文》：“泉，水原也。象水流出成川形。”

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)

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.