做针线 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

zuòzhēnxiàn

needlework

zuò work

做 originated as a variant form of 作.

Components

作 Sound Meaning component

zuò make

The right half of 作 was corrupted to look like unrelated 古.

Change in form

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

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

夂 is a component form of 攴.

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	ʔsaːɡs

Sources

Character origin: Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang

zhēn needle Simplified

Simplified form of 針. Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

钅 Meaning component

jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

针 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
针 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

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

xiàn thread Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 戋 represents the sound. Simplified form of 線.

Components

纟 Meaning component

mì silk

纟 is a component form of 糸.

戋 Sound component

jiān, cán small

Sources

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

zhēn needle Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

釒 Meaning component

jīn metal

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

針 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
針 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyim	t.[k]əm	needle

Sources

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

xiàn thread Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 泉 represents the sound.

Components

糹 Meaning component

mì silk

糹 is a component form of 糸.

泉 Sound component

quán spring

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		sqʰeːns
Unicode	siɛ̀n

說文解字

《說文》：“綫，縷也。从糸，戔聲。線，古文綫。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

做 zuò work

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

针 zhēn needle Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

线 xiàn thread Simplified

Components

Sources

針 zhēn needle Traditional

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

線 xiàn thread Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

zuò work

zhēn needle Simplified

xiàn thread Simplified

zhēn needle Traditional

xiàn thread Traditional