初恋
chū​liàn

first love

初 chū beginning

Depicts cutting out fabric (衤) with a knife (刀), the first step in making clothes.

Components

衤
衤 Iconic component
yī clothes

衤 is a component form of 衣.

刀
刀 Iconic component
dāo knife

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsrhjo[ts]ʰra beginning

說文解字

《說文》：“初，始也。从刀，从衣。裁衣之始也。”

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)

恋 liàn love Simplified

Simplified form of 戀. Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

亦
亦 Simplified component
yì also

Shorthand of the phonetic 䜌 component in the traditional character 戀.

心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

Sources

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

戀 liàn to long for, love Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

䜌
䜌 Sound component
luán tie together
心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartljwenH[r]on-s to long for

Sources

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