bí​r

eye

nose

Phonosemantic compound. is a pictograph of a nose and represents the sound.

Components

Iconic component
(nose), self

Depicts a nose.

Sound component
to give

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (1 of 5 verified)

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjijHCə-bi[t]-s smell (v.t.)
bjijHm-bi[t]-s nose

說文解字

《說文》:“鼻,引气自畀也。从自、畀。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

r, ér child Simplified

Simplified form of . Variant form of , a pictograph of a human.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Simplified (1)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

說文解字

《說文》:“儿,仁人也。古文奇字人也。象形。孔子曰:在人下,故詰屈。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica

r, ér son Traditional

Pictograph of a child () with an opening in the top of its head (). Represents the soft spot (fontanel) at the top of young infant heads. The component is written like .

Components

Iconic component
xìn fontanel

Depicts the gap between the bones in an infant skull.

Iconic component
rén, ren person

Depicts a human.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyeŋe child

說文解字

《說文》:“兒,孺子也。从儿,象小兒頭囟未合。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.687
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica