螃蟹
páng​xiè

crab

螃 páng, bǎng crab

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

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
旁
旁 Sound component
páng side

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpaːŋʔ
paːŋs
baːŋ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

蟹 xiè crab

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 解 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蠏.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
解
解 Sound component
jiě divide

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthɛXm-kˤreʔcrab
Zhengzhangɡreːʔ

Sources

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