丁零当啷
dīng​ling​dāng​lāng

ding-a-ling

丁 dīng cubes

Original meaning: city wall

In ancient scripts 丁 was written in two different ways: (1) depicting the walls of a city, which is now written as 圍, or (2) depicting a nail, which is now written as 釘.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (14 of 24 verified)

成正真打顶灯订厅盯亭钉叮汀町酊仃玎疔耵頂訂釘虰眞

Iconic (2)

成正

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

虰

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttengtˤeŋ 4th heavenly stem
tengtˤeŋ nail (n.)
treangtˤreŋ sound of beating

說文解字

《說文》：“丁，夏時萬物皆丁實。象形。丁承丙，象人心。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p. 962
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

零 líng zero

Original meaning: to fall (rain/snow)

Phonosemantic compound. 雨 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to fall (of rain/snow)". The meaning later shifted to "scattered", "fraction", and "zero".

Components

雨
雨 Meaning component
yǔ rain
令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartleng[r]ˤiŋ fall (v., of rain)

說文解字

《說文》：“零，餘雨也。从雨，令聲。”

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)

当 dāng, dàng, dang to match Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 田 represents the meaning and 尚 represents the sound. The simplified character 当 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 當.

Components

彐
彐 Simplified component
jì snout

Shorthand for the 田 component in the traditional character 當.

尚
尚 SoundSimplifiedRemnant component
shàng, shang esteem

Shorthand for the 尚 component in the traditional character 當.

Component uses

Sound (2 of 6 verified)

档挡裆铛筜𪠽

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

挡

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

啷 lāng a clanging or rattling sound

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth

mouth

郎
郎 Sound component
láng gentleman

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

噹 sound of bells Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 當 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
當
當 Sound component
dāng, dàng, dang to match

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode