tián​tǒng

ice-cream cone

tián sweet

Depicts the tongue () tasting something sweet ().

Components

Meaning component
shé tongue
Meaning component
gān sweetness

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangl'iːm

說文解字

《說文》:“甛,美也。从甘,从舌。舌,知甘者。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

tǒng thick piece of bamboo

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and represents the sound. Originally written as .

Components

Meaning component
zhú bamboo

⺮ is a component form of .

Sound component
tóng, tong, tòng together

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartduwnglˤoŋtube
Zhengzhangdoːŋ
doːŋs
Unicodedhung

說文解字

通簫也。从竹同聲。

Sources

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