乳源县 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

rǔ breast, milk

Depicts a mother holding (爫) a child (子) breastfeeding it.

Components

爫 Iconic component

zhǎo hand, claw

爫 is a component form of 爪. Depicts a hand.

子 Iconic component

zi, zǐ child

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a mother breastfeeding.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyuX	noʔ	milk; nipple

說文解字

《說文》：“乳，人及鳥生子曰乳，獸曰產。从孚，从乙。乙者，玄鳥也。《明堂》、《月令》：‘玄鳥至之日，祠于高禖以請子。’故乳从乙。請子必以乙至之日者，乙春分來，秋分去，開生之候鳥，帝少昊司分之官也。”

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)

yuán spring

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 原 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

原 Sound Meaning component

yuán source

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngjwon	N-ɢʷar	spring, source

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

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

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.