suàn​bàn

garlic clove

suàn garlic

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

herb

Sound component
suàn to calculate

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartswanH[s]ˤor-sgarlic
Zhengzhangsloːns

說文解字

葷菜。从艸祘聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

bàn petal

Original meaning: melon seeds

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Meaning component
guā melon

melon

Sound component
biàn criminals accusing one another

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangbreːns

說文解字

《說文》:“瓣,瓜中實。从瓜,辡聲。”

Sources

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