← Back to history 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
Changed etymology
Changed fields: hint
Original meaning: bend
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
- 鄔可晶《「丸」字續釋——從清華簡所見的一種「邍」字談起》
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)