fān​fān HSK7

double

fān flip over

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
fān to take turns
Meaning component
feather

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpʰan
Unicodepiæn

說文解字

《說文新附》:“翻,飛也。从羽,番聲。或从飛。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

fān to take turns

Original meaning: animal's paw

Depicts an animal's claw () with their paw shown. also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "animal's paw", now written as . The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

SoundIconic component
biàn, biǎn distinguish

Used here to depict an animal's claw.

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts an animal's paw. Modern form looks like unrelated .


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 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
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

Component uses

Sound (3 of 10 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpapˤar martial
phjonpʰar a turn, a time

說文解字

《說文》:“番,獸足謂之番。从采,田象其掌。番或从足、从煩。,古文番。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.89
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica