tiǎn​yīn

cunnilingus

tiǎn lick with tongue

Components

Meaning component
shé tongue

tongue

Sound component
tiǎn disgraced

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartthemXl̥ ˤ[i]mʔto lick, to lap [not in GSR]
Zhengzhangl̥ʰiːmʔ
Unicodetèm

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

yīn dark Simplified

The traditional characters (Yin) and (Yang) were simplified to and . In Chinese philosophy, the moon () corresponds to Yin () and the sun () corresponds to Yang ().

Components

Meaning component
hill, place

is a component form of .

Simplified component
yuè, yue moon

Simplified from the traditional . Used here since the moon corresponds to the 'Yin' of 'Yin and Yang' in Chinese philosophy.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

yīn dark Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. and represent the sound, while and represent the meaning.

Components

Meaning component
hill, place

is a component form of . Depicts hills blocking sunlight.

Sound component
jīn now
SoundMeaning component
yún clouds

Depicts clouds darkening the sky.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'imq(r)um dark

說文解字

闇也。水之南、山之北也。从𨸏侌聲。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica