Original meaning: to fall (rain/snow)
Phonosemantic compound. 雨 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to fall (of rain/snow)". The meaning later shifted to "scattered", "fraction", and "zero".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | leng | [r]ˤiŋ | fall (v., of rain) |
說文解字
《說文》：“零，餘雨也。从雨，令聲。”
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)
Traditional
Components
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 集 than it was in ancient scripts.
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzop | [dz]ˤ[u]p | mixed |
說文解字
《說文》：“雜，五彩相會。从衣，集聲。”
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)