Original meaning: long river
Same origin as 永. Pictograph of a long river with a tributary. The meaning later shifted to "overflow" and "spill over".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yenX | N-q(r)anʔ | overflow |
說文解字
《說文》：“衍，水朝宗于海也。从水，从行。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.796裘錫圭《裘錫圭學術文集》Vol 1, p.382
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Pictograph of a right-side up person (亻) and an upside-down person (𠤎), depicting the meaning "turn around" or "transform".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | xwaeH | qʷʰˤ<r>aj-s | transform |
說文解字
《說文》：“化，教行也。从，从人，亦聲。”
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)