蜻蛉
qīng​líng

damselfly

蜻 qīng dragonfly

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 青 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
青
青 Sound component
qīng green or blue

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsleŋ
sʰleːŋ
Unicodetseng

說文解字

蜻蛚也。从虫青聲。

Sources

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

蛉 líng dragonfly

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

insect

令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangreːŋ

說文解字

蜻蛉也。从虫令聲。一名桑桹。

Sources

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