丹桂
dān​guì

orange osmanthus

丹 dān, dan cinnabar

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar found in a well for mining.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar.

井
井 Iconic component
jǐng well

Depicts a well for mining.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

坍旃

Meaning (2)

彤旃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttantˤan cinnabar

說文解字

《說文》：“丹，巴越之赤石也。象采丹井，一象丹形。，古文丹。，亦古文丹。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.426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)

桂 guì cassia or cinnamon

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 圭 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
圭
圭 Sound component
guī jade pointed at top

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkʷeːs
Unicodeguèi

說文解字

江南木，百藥之長。从木圭聲。

Sources

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