冡
méng

to cover

Depicts a hat (冃) and tiger skin (虎), conveying the meaning "cover" by soldiers who fought covered in tiger skins. The 虎 (tiger) component was later rewritten as 豕 (pig).

Components

冃
冃 SoundIconic component
mào cap
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 冃 than it was in ancient scripts.
虎
虎 Iconic component
hǔ, hu tiger

Modern form looks like unrelated 豕.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

蒙

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“冡，覆也。从、豕。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇 《說文新證》 p.615The Digital Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)