冥
míng

dark

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approved by Peter Olson · Mar 6, 2024, 04:52 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Mar 6, 2024, 04:52 PM

fix typo

Changed fields: hint

Original meaning: to give birth to a child

Depicts a cover (冖/宀) over the sun (日). 宀 also provides the pronunciation. The purpose of the bottom 六 component is unclear.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts the legs of a woman.

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a baby's head.

𠬜
𠬜 Iconic component
pān to climb

Depicts two hands facing away from each other. Modern form looks like 六.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmengmˤeŋ dark

說文解字

《說文》：“冥，幽也。从日，从六，冖聲。日數十，十六日而月始虧，幽也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫Этимология китайских иероглифов
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)