男旦
nán​dàn

female impersonator

男 nán male

Traditionally males (男) were the people who plowed (力) the fields (田).

Components

田
田 Meaning component
tián field
力
力 Meaning component
lì, li power

Depicts a plow.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 4 verified)

舅甥嬲虜

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnomnˤ[ə]m man, male

說文解字

《說文》：“男，丈夫也。从田，从力，言男用力於田也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.918-919
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

旦 dàn dawn

Depicts the sun (日) rising above the horizon (一) at dawn. In the oracle bone script the bottom component was the phonetic 丁, which was later reanalyzed as the earth or a horizon.

Components

日
日 Iconic component
rì sun
一
一 Iconic component
yī one

Depicts the horizon.


Character Evolution

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

Component uses

Sound (4 of 12 verified)

但担坦胆袒靼疸妲笪怛钽亶

Meaning (3 of 4 verified)

昼暨倝𠦝

Unknown (2 of 3 verified)

是鼂昰

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttanHtˤan-s dawn

說文解字

《說文》：“旦，明也。从日見一上。一，地也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.539
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)