gèn

turn around, turn back

Originally written the same as (return). Later lines were added above and below to distinguish the two characters.

Components

Iconic component
huí return
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
èr two

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
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwan[ɢ]ʷˤar turn around, turn back
sjwens-[q]ʷar turn around
sjwenswar (< *s-[q]ʷar)阿會亘 ēhuìxuān: Skt. ābhāsvara ‘shining’ (E. Hàn)

說文解字

《說文》:“亘,求亘也。从二,从囘。囘,古文回,象囘回形。上下,所求物也。”

Sources

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