shèng​yàn

feast

shèng, chéng abundant

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
mǐn, mǐng dish

Depicts a full container.

Sound component
chéng, cheng completed

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyeng[d]eŋ put in (a receptacle)
dzyengH[d]eŋ-s full, abundant

說文解字

《說文》:“盛,黍稷在器中以祀者也。从皿,成聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

yàn to entertain

Original meaning: peace and happiness

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "peace and happiness". The meaning later shifted to "banquet", "feast", and "to entertain".

Components

Meaning component
mián roof

Represents being peaceful at home.

Sound component
yàn safe

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'enHʔˤe[n]-s feast (n.)

說文解字

《說文》:“宴,安也。从宀,晏聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.657
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica