蜡染 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

làrǎn

batik

là wax Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 昔 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蠟.

Components

虫 Meaning component

chóng bug, insect

昔 Sound component

xī, cuò in the past, ancient times

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	zraːɡs
	sʰaːɡs

說文解字

蠅䏣也。《周禮》：“蜡氏掌除骴。”从虫昔聲。

Sources

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

rǎn dye, infect, be contagious

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

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

杂 Sound component

zá mixed, various

Change in sound

染 and 杂 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyemX	C.n[a]mʔ	to dye

說文解字

《說文》：“染，以繒染為色。从水，杂聲。”

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)

là wax Traditional

Components

虫 Meaning component

chóng bug, insect

insect

巤 Sound component

liè whiskers

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	lap	k.rˤap (no pre-Qín exx.)	wax
Zhengzhang		raːb
Unicode	lɑp

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart Zhengzhang Shangfang

蜡 là wax Simplified

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

染 rǎn dye, infect, be contagious

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

蠟 là wax Traditional

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

là wax Simplified

rǎn dye, infect, be contagious

là wax Traditional