穿针 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

chuānzhēn

thread a needle

chuān wear

Original meaning: bore a hole

Alludes to creating a hole (穴) with one's teeth (牙). Based on the original meaning "bore a hole". The meaning later expanded to "pass through" and "wear".

Components

穴 Meaning component

xué, jué cave

牙 Meaning component

yá tooth

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyhwen	tʰo[n]	bore through

說文解字

《說文》：“穿，通也。从牙在穴中。”

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)

zhēn needle Simplified

Simplified form of 針. Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

钅 Meaning component

jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

针 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
针 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

zhēn needle Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

釒 Meaning component

jīn metal

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

針 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
針 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyim	t.[k]əm	needle

Sources

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

穿 chuān wear

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

针 zhēn needle Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

針 zhēn needle Traditional

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

chuān wear

zhēn needle Simplified

zhēn needle Traditional