分析员 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

fēn, fèn, fen divide

Depicts a knife (刀) being used to cut two things apart (八).

Components

bā eight

Depicts two things being separated.

Change in sound

分 and 八 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
分 *pə[n]
八 *pˤret

刀 Iconic component

dāo knife

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (6 of 23 verified)

份纷贫粉芬扮氛盆盼吩颁忿汾酚玢棼邠坌貧鼢紛頒棻 show all 23 show fewer

Meaning (0 of 6 verified)

贫颁岔掰貧頒

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjun	pə[n]	divide
	bjunH	[m]-pə[n]-s	alloted duty

說文解字

《說文》：“分，別也。从八，从刀，刀以分別物也。”

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)

xī to separate

Depicts chopping wood (木) with an axe (斤).

Components

木 Iconic component

mù tree

斤 Iconic component

jīn axe

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

晰蜥皙淅菥

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sek	[s]ˤek	split (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“析，破木也。一曰折也。从木，从斤。”

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 member Simplified

Simplified form of 員. Depicts the round opening (口) of a cooking pot (鼎). Based on the original meaning "round", now written as 圓. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a circle.

贝 Iconic Remnant component

bèi sea shell

Change in form

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

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

损圆勋陨殒郧埙筼

Sources

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

yuán member Traditional

Original meaning: round

Depicts the round opening (口) of a cooking pot (鼎). Based on the original meaning "round", now written as 圓. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a circle.

鼎 Iconic Remnant component

dǐng, zhēn cooking pot

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

韻損勛篔殞隕鄖圓

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hjwen	ɢʷ<r>en	circle; round
	hjun	[ɢ]ʷə[n]	(a particle)

說文解字

《說文》：“員，物數也。从貝，口聲。鼎，籀文从鼎。”

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)

分 fēn, fèn, fen divide

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (6 of 23 verified)

Meaning (0 of 6 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

析 xī to separate

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

员 yuán member Simplified

Components

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

Sources

員 yuán member Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

fēn, fèn, fen divide

xī to separate

yuán member Simplified

yuán member Traditional