羡慕
xiàn​mù HSK7

admire

羡 xiàn desire, envy Simplified

Depicts a person salivating (㳄) when seeing a tasty sheep (羊) that they have a desire to eat.

Components

羊
羊 Iconic component
yáng sheep
㳄
㳄 SoundIconicRemnant component
xián spit, saliva

Modern form looks like 次.

Sources

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

慕 mù admire, desire

Phonosemantic compound. ⺗ represents the meaning and 莫 represents the sound.

Components

莫
莫 Sound component
mò, mo do not
⺗
⺗ Meaning component
xīn heart

⺗ is a component form of 心.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmuH(C.)mˤak-s love; long for

說文解字

《說文》：“慕，習也。从心，莫聲。”

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)

羨 xiàn envy, desire Traditional

Depicts a person salivating (㳄) when seeing a tasty sheep (羊) that they have a desire to eat.

Components

羊
羊 Iconic component
yáng sheep
㳄
㳄 SoundIconic component
xián spit, saliva

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzjenHs-N-qa[r]-s covet, desire
zjenHs-[ɢ]a[n]-s surplus, affluence
yen[ɢ]a[n] extend; go forward

說文解字

《說文》：“羨，貪欲也。从，从羑省。羑呼之羑，文王所拘羑里。”

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)