蛙泳
wā​yǒng

breaststroke

蛙 wā frog

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 圭 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鼃.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
圭
圭 Sound component
guī jade pointed at top

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'waeqʷˤre (MC -ae for -ea)frog
'weaqʷˤrefrog
hwaem-qʷˤre (MC -ae for -ea)frog
hweam-qʷˤrefrog
Zhengzhangqʷraː
qʷreː
Unicodequa

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

泳 yǒng swim

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 永 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

永
永 Sound component
yǒng long

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjwaengH[ɢ]ʷraŋ(ʔ)-s go in water, wade

說文解字

《說文》：“泳，潛行水中也。从水，永聲。”

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)