警笛
jǐng​dí

siren

警 jǐng warn

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 敬 represents the sound.

Components

敬
敬 Sound component
jìng respect
言
言 Meaning component
yán speech

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjaengXkreŋʔ warn, admonish

說文解字

戒也。从言从敬，敬亦聲。

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)

笛 dí bamboo flute

A bamboo ⺮ flute 由

Components

⺮
⺮ Meaning component
zhú bamboo
由
由 Meaning component
yóu cause

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdeklˤiwkflute
Zhengzhangl'ɯːwɢ
Unicodedhek

說文解字

七孔筩也。从竹由聲。羌笛三孔。

Sources

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