kào​diàn

cushion

kào lean on

Original meaning: conflict

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "conflict". The meaning later shifted to "lean against".

Components

Sound component
gào tell
Meaning component
fēi not
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "conflict", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰuːɡs

說文解字

《說文》:“靠,相違也。从非,告聲。”

Sources

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

diàn advance money Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
zhí hold in hand

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

diàn advance money Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
zhí hold in hand

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttemH[t]ˤ[i]m-sdescend
tep[t]ˤip(place in Sìchuān, no pre-Hàn text)
Zhengzhangtiːms
diːb

說文解字

下也。《春秋傳》曰:“墊隘。”从土執聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica