判
pàn HSK3

judge

Original meaning: cut open

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 半 represents the sound.

Components

半
半 Sound component
bàn half
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartphanHpʰˤan-s divide

說文解字

《說文》:“判,分也。从刀,半聲。”

Sources

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