Simplified
Depicts the sun (日) rising above the horizon (一) at dawn. In the oracle bone script the bottom component was the phonetic 丁, which was later reanalyzed as the earth or a horizon.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tanH | tˤan-s | dawn |
說文解字
《說文》：“旦，明也。从日見一上。一，地也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.539
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: bind
Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind". The meaning later shifted to "agreement", "restrain", "keep under control", "appointment", and "approximately".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jiewH | [q]ewk-s | bond, agreement (n.) |
| 'jak | [q](r)ewk | bind (v.), make an agreement |
說文解字
《說文》：“約，纏束也。从糸，勺聲。”
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)