鬱
yù

melancholy, sweet smelling

Depicts a person (大) trampling another person (勹), who is depressed, in a forest (林). 鬯 (sacrificial wine) was later added to the character since the meaning later extended to "sweet smelling".

Components

林
林 Iconic component
lín forest
大
大 Iconic component
dà, dài big

Depicts a person trampling. Modern form looks like unrelated 缶.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 大 than it was in ancient scripts.
勹
勹 Iconic component
bāo wrap

Here used to depict a depressed person being trampled. Modern form looks like unrelated 冖.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 勹 than it was in ancient scripts.
鬯
鬯 Meaning component
chàng sacrificial wine

This component was later added since the meaning of this character extended to "sweet smelling".

彡
彡 UnknownDistinguishing component
shān, xiǎn hair

This component was possibly added as decorative strokes.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jutqut blocked; anxious

說文解字

《說文》：“鬱，木叢生者。从林，省聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.433-434Wiktionary
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

郁 yù surname Yu Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 有 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鬱.

Components

⻏
⻏ Meaning component
yì city

阝 is a component form of 邑.

有
有 Sound component
yǒu have

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'juwkqʷək stately, elegant

說文解字

《說文》：“郁，右扶風郁夷也。从邑，有聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)