謹
jǐn

prudent

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 堇 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
堇
堇 Sound component
jǐn, qín, jìn clay

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkj+nXkə[r]ʔattentive, careful
Zhengzhangkɯnʔ

說文解字

愼也。从言堇聲。

Sources

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

谨 jǐn prudent Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 堇 represents the sound. Simplified form of 謹.

Components

讠
讠 Meaning component
yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

堇
堇 Sound component
jǐn, qín, jìn clay

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode