褐煤
hè​méi

lignite

褐 hè coarse woolen cloth

Phonosemantic compound. 衤 represents the meaning and 曷 represents the sound.

Components

衤
衤 Meaning component
yī clothes

衤 is a component form of 衣.

曷
曷 Sound component
hé, è, hè why? what? where?

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthat[ɢ]ˤat coarse cloth

說文解字

《說文》：“褐，編枲韤。一曰粗衣。从衣，曷聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

煤 méi coal

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 某 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
某
某 Sound component
mǒu certain thing or person

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmwojmˤəsoot; coal
Zhengzhangmɯː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang