róng​yán​hú

lava lake

róng melt

To form hot metal  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
huǒ fire
Meaning component
róng contain; appearance

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangloŋ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

yán cliff

The rocks that make up a mountain 

Components

Meaning component
shān mountain
Meaning component
shí stone

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngæm[ŋ]ˤr[a]m (< uvular?)rocky, lofty
Zhengzhangŋraːm
Unicodengam

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

a lake

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

Sound component
beard

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[g]ˤa lake

說文解字

《說文》:“湖,大陂也。从水,胡聲。揚州浸有五湖。浸,川澤所仰以灌溉也。”

Sources

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