真 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

zhēn HSK1

real

Original meaning: precious

Based on the original meaning "precious", now written as 珍. The meaning later shifted to "genuine" and "true".

Components

𠂈 Sound component

diān, tiǎn to fall forwards

Based on an ancient variant of 殄.

Change in sound

真 and 𠂈 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
真 *ti[n]
𠂈 *[d]ˤə[n]ʔ

Change in form

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

貝 Meaning component

bèi sea shell

In ancient China, shells were considered precious and were used as currency.

丁 Sound component

dīng cubes

Change in sound

真 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
真 *ti[n]
丁 *tˤeŋ

Change in form

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

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyin	ti[n]	true, real

《說文》：“真，僊人變形而登天也。从，从目，从。八，所乘載也。，古文真。”