Original meaning: hillside
Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 可 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "hillside". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'a | qˤa[j] | slope, river bank |
| 'a | ʔˤa (< *qˤaj) | 阿會亘 ēhuìxuān: Skt. ābhāsvara “shining” (E. Hàn) |
說文解字
大陵也。一曰曲𨸏也。从𨸏可聲。
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)
Original meaning: call loudly
Originally composed of 口 (mouth) and 日 (sun), representing a call in the morning to wake people up at sunrise to start working. Based on the original meaning "call loudly", now written as 唱. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | tʰjaŋ | |
| Unicode | chiɑng |
說文解字
《說文》：“昌，美言也。从日，从曰。一曰日光也。《詩》曰：‘東方昌矣。’，籀文昌。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.536
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)