秉烛 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

bǐng grasp

Depicts a hand (又) holding a grain stalk (禾). Similar in origin to 兼.

Components

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

又 Iconic component

yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjaengX	praŋʔ	grasp

說文解字

《說文》：“秉，禾束也。从又，持禾。”

Sources

Character origin: 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)

zhú candle Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 虫 represents the sound. Simplified form of 燭.

Components

火 Meaning component

huǒ fire

虫 Sound component

chóng bug, insect

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

zhú candle Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 蜀 represents the sound.

Components

火 Meaning component

huǒ fire

蜀 Sound component

shǔ short name for Sichuan

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyowk	tok	torch
Zhengzhang		tjoɡ
Unicode	jiok

說文解字

庭燎，火燭也。从火蜀聲。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

秉 bǐng grasp

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

烛 zhú candle Simplified

Components

Sources

燭 zhú candle Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

bǐng grasp

zhú candle Simplified

zhú candle Traditional