fěn​chén

dust

fěn powder

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rice
Sound component
fēn, fèn, fen divide

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Iconic (1)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpjunXmə.pənʔ flour

說文解字

《說文》:“粉,傅面者也。从米,分聲。”

Sources

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

chén dust Simplified

Small  flakes of earth 

Components

Meaning component
xiǎo small
Meaning component
earth

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

chén dust Traditional

Dust  kicked up by a fleeing deer 鹿

Components

鹿
鹿 Meaning component
deer
Meaning component
earth

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdrin[d]rə[n]dust (n.)
Zhengzhangrdɯn
Unicodedjhin

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica