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Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
Changed etymology
Changed fields: hint
Derived from 夗. Pictograph of an animal that is almost about to die lying down. The meaning later shifted to "small round object" and "pellet, pill".
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hwan | [ɢ]ʷˤar | pellet; ball |
| hwan | ɦʷˤar (< *[ɢ]ʷˤar) | 烏丸 Wūhuán: Avars (W. Hàn) |
說文解字
《說文》：“丸，圜，傾側而轉者。从反仄。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.726劉釗《古文字構形學》p.128
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)