生涩
shēng​sè

stiff

生 shēng, sheng life

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

Components

屮
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
一 Iconic component
yī one

Used here to depict the ground.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
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)

性青星省胜姓牲甥笙旌眚

Meaning (4 of 5 verified)

靑甤甦產産

Deleted (1)

产

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsraengsreŋ (MC srj- > sr-; or *s.reŋ ?)bear, be born; live
sraengsreŋ fresh, raw
srjaengsreŋ (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)

涩 sè astringent Simplified

Original meaning: unsmooth

Simplified form of 澀. Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaningSimplified component
sè, shà unsmooth

Sources

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

澀 astringent Traditional

Original meaning: unsmooth

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaning component
sè, shà unsmooth

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsrɯb
Unicodeshrip

Sources

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