yǎn​jiān

sharp-eyed

yǎn eye

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
eye
Sound component
gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngonXŋˤə[n]ʔ protrude as a knob
ngeanX[ŋ]ˤ<r>ə[n]ʔ eye

說文解字

《說文》:“眼,目也。从目,聲。”

Sources

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

jiān sharp

Components

Meaning component
xiǎo small
Meaning component
dà, dài big

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔslem

Sources

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