较真
jiào​zhēn

earnest

较 jiào compare Simplified

Original meaning: horizontal beams on a carriage

Phonosemantic compound. 车 represents the meaning and 交 represents the sound. Simplified form of 較. Based on the original meaning "horizontal beams on a carriage". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

车
车 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
Change in meaning
车 hints at the original meaning of 较, "horizontal beams on a carriage", which is no longer the most common meaning of 较 in modern Mandarin.
交
交 Sound component
jiāo to cross, to mix

Sources

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

真 zhēn real

Original meaning: precious

Based on the original meaning "precious", now written as 珍. The meaning later shifted to "genuine" and "true".

Components

𠂈
𠂈 Sound component
diān, tiǎn to fall forwards

Based on an ancient variant of 殄.

Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠂈 than it was in ancient scripts.
貝
貝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell

In ancient China, shells were considered precious and were used as currency.

丁
丁 Sound component
dīng cubes
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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

Component uses

Sound (7 of 15 verified)

镇慎填颠滇嗔缜稹瞋鎮禛顛瑱鬒縝

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyinti[n] true, real

說文解字

《說文》：“真，僊人變形而登天也。从，从目，从。八，所乘載也。，古文真。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.643-644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)

較 jiào compare Traditional

Original meaning: horizontal beams on a carriage

Phonosemantic compound. 車 represents the meaning and 交 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "horizontal beams on a carriage". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

車
車 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
Change in meaning
車 hints at the original meaning of 較, "horizontal beams on a carriage", which is no longer the most common meaning of 較 in modern Mandarin.
交
交 Sound component
jiāo to cross, to mix

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkreːwɢs
kreːwɢ
Unicodegàu

Sources

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