通讯员 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

tōng, tòng pass through

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 甬 represents the sound.

Components

辶 Meaning component

chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

甬 Sound component

yǒng, tǒng, dòng path

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

嗵

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thuwng	l̥ˤoŋ	penetrate

說文解字

達也。从辵甬聲。

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)

xùn inquire Simplified

Simplified form of 訊. Depicts a mouth (口) interrogating a captured prisoner of war (卂). 卂 also represents the sound. The 口 (mouth) component was later reanalyzed as 讠 (speech).

Components

讠 Iconic component

yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言. Originally 口 (mouth). Later reanalyzed as 讠 (speech).

卂 Sound Iconic component

xùn to fly rapidly

Depicts a captive prisoner with their hands tied behind their back.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫中華語文知識庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

yuán member Simplified

Simplified form of 員. Depicts the round opening (口) of a cooking pot (鼎). Based on the original meaning "round", now written as 圓. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a circle.

贝 Iconic Remnant component

bèi sea shell

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 贝 than it was in ancient scripts.

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

损圆勋陨殒郧埙筼

Sources

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

xùn inquire Traditional

Depicts a mouth (口) interrogating a captured prisoner of war (卂). 卂 also represents the sound. The 口 (mouth) component was later reanalyzed as 言 (speech).