胤
yìn

descendant

八 represents the split between the bloodline relations. 幺 represents continuation. ⺼ represents the bloodline. All of these components convey the meaning "descendant".

Components

八
八 Iconic component
bā eight

Depicts two lines facing away from each other. Used here to represent the split between bloodline relations.

幺
幺 Iconic component
yāo tiny

Depicts a thread. Used here to represent continuation since threads are usually long.

⺼
⺼ Iconic component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉. Used here to depict bloodline.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyinH[ɢ]ə[n]-s descendants

說文解字

《說文》：“胤，子孫相承續也。从肉，从八，象其長也；从幺，象重累也。，古文胤。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.343
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)