负担
fù​dān HSK4

burden

负 fù, fu bear, carry Simplified

Simplified form of 負. Depicts a person (人) carrying shells (贝) on their back.

Components

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
贝
贝 Iconic component
bèi sea shell

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

担 dān, dàn, dan carry Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 旦 represents the sound. Simplified form of 擔.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

旦
旦 Sound component
dàn dawn

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtaːnʔ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

負 fù, fu bear, carry Traditional

Depicts a person (人) carrying shells (貝) on their back.

Components

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
貝
貝 Iconic component
bèi sea shell

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjuwX[b]əʔ carry on the back

說文解字

《說文》：“負，恃也。从人守貝有所恃也。一曰受貸不償。”

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)

擔 dān, dàn, dan carry Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 詹 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

詹
詹 Sound component
zhān, dàn talk too much

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttammə-tˤam carry on the shoulder
tamtˤam burden
tamHmə-tˤam-s burden

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart