窘境
jiǒng​jìng

predicament

窘 jiǒng embarrassed

Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 君 represents the sound.

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
君
君 Sound component
jūn ruler

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡrunʔ

說文解字

迫也。从穴君聲。

Sources

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

境 jìng boundary

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 竟 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
竟
竟 Sound component
jìng actually

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjaengX[k]raŋʔ boundary

說文解字

《說文新附》：“境，疆也。从土，竟聲。經典通用竟。”

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)