虎视眈眈
hǔ​shì​dān​dān

eyeing greedily

虎 hǔ, hu tiger

Pictograph of a tiger.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Qin 221-206 BC
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

Component uses

Meaning (2 of 5 verified)

彪琥號虒猇

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

唬琥處

Iconic (2)

虢冡

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxuXqʰˤraʔ (W dialect: *qˤʰr- >r̥ˤ- > x-)tiger

說文解字

《說文》：“虎，山獸之君。从虍，虎足象人足，象形……虝，古文虎。，亦古文虎。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.409
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

视 shì, shi look at Simplified

Simplified form of 視. Phonosemantic compound. 見 represents the meaning and 礻 represents the sound.

Components

见
见 Meaning component
jiàn, xiàn, jian see
礻
礻 Sound component
shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

Sources

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

眈 dān, chěn gloat

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 冘 represents the sound.

Components

目
目 Meaning component
mù eye
冘
冘 Sound component
yín, yóu to move on

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔl'uːm
ʔl'uːmʔ
l'uːm

說文解字

視近而志遠。从目冘聲。《易》曰：“虎視眈眈。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

視 shì, shi look at Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 見 represents the meaning and 礻 represents the sound.

Components

見
見 Meaning component
jiàn, xiàn, jian see
礻
礻 Sound component
shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyijXgijʔ look, see
dzyijHgijʔ-s look, see

說文解字

《說文》：“視，瞻也。从見、示。，古文視；眡，亦古文視。”

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)