美联社 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

Měi Liánshè

Associated Press

měi beautiful

Pictograph of a person with ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Components

羊 Iconic component

yáng sheep

Depicts ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

大 Iconic component

dà, dài big

Used here as a pictograph of a person.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mijX	[m]rəjʔ	beautiful

說文解字

《說文》：“美，甘也。从羊，从大。”

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)

lián connect Simplified

Simplified form of 聯. Phonosemantic compound. 耳 represents the meaning and 𢇇 represents the sound.

Components

耳 Meaning component

ěr ear

Alludes to earrings connected to the ear.

关 Simplified component

guān to close

Shorthand for the phonetic 𢇇 component in the traditional character 聯.

Sources

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

shè society

Original meaning: god of soil

Originally depicted a god (礻) of the soil (土). The meaning later shifted to "shrine", "congregation", and "society".

Components

礻 Meaning component

shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

土 Sound Meaning component

tǔ earth

Change in sound

社 and 土 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
社 *m-tʰAʔ
土 *tʰˤaʔ

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

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

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

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

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

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

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzyaeX	m-tʰAʔ	sacrifice to the spirit of the soil

說文解字

《說文》：“社，地主也。从示、土。《春秋傳》曰：‘共工之子句龍為社神。’《周禮》：‘二十五家為社，各樹其土所宜之木。’，古文社。”

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)

lián connect Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 耳 represents the meaning and 𢇇 represents the sound.

Components

耳 Meaning component

ěr ear

Alludes to earrings connected to the ear.

𢇇 Sound component

guān to run threads through a web in weaving

Change in sound

聯 and 𢇇 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
聯 *ɡ·ron
𢇇 *kroːn

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

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

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“聯，連也。从耳，耳連於頰也；从絲，絲連不絕也。”

Sources

Character origin: Zhengzhang Shangfang漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)