警醒
jǐng​xǐng

alert

警 jǐng warn

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

Components

敬
敬 Sound component
jìng respect
言
言 Meaning component
yán speech

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjaengXkreŋʔ warn, admonish

說文解字

戒也。从言从敬，敬亦聲。

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)

醒 xǐng wake up, sober up

Phonosemantic compound. 酉 represents the meaning and 星 represents the sound.

Components

酉
酉 Meaning component
yǒu wine
星
星 Sound component
xīng a star

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsengXs-tsʰˤeŋʔ wake up

說文解字

《說文新附》：“醒，醉解也。从酉，星聲。”

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)