生气盎然 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

shēng, sheng life

Pictograph of a sprout (屮) emerging from the ground (一).

Components

屮 Iconic component

chè, cǎo sprout

Depicts a sprout growing.

Change in form

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

一 Iconic component

yī one

Used here to depict the ground.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sraeng	sreŋ (MC srj- > sr-; or *s.reŋ ?)	bear, be born; live
	sraeng	sreŋ	fresh, raw
	srjaeng	sreŋ (or *s.reŋ ?)	bear, be born; live

說文解字

《說文》：“生，進也。象艸木生出土上。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.506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)

qì, qi air Simplified

Depicts a gust of air.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (4 of 23 verified)

汽氧氛氢氯氨氮氖氟氦氲氰氤氩氚氪氘氡氙氕氳氜氫 show all 23 show fewer

Sound (4)

汽忾饩氣

Iconic (1)

氣

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	khj+jH	C.qʰəp-s	(inhaled thing:) breath, air, vapors

說文解字

《說文》：“气，雲气也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.58-59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)

àng cup

Phonosemantic compound. 皿 represents the meaning and 央 represents the sound.

Components

皿 Meaning component

mǐn, mǐng dish

央 Sound component

yāng beg

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		qaːŋʔ
		qaːŋs
Unicode	qɑ̀ng
	qɑ̌ng

說文解字

盆也。从皿央聲。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

rán, ran yes

Original meaning: burn

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 肰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burn", now written as 燃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

灬 Meaning component

biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

肰 Sound component

rán dog meat

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

燃

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyen	[n]a[n]	so, thus; (adv suffix)

說文解字

《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”

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)

qì, qi air Traditional

Original meaning: gift of grain

Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 气 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gift of grain", now written as 餼. The current meaning "air" is a phonetic loan.