厭
yànyāyān

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approved by cochleoid · Jul 17, 2022, 05:18 AM · Reviewed by cochleoid on Jul 17, 2022, 05:18 AM

Usually the relation of the meaning component is obvious, but this is definitely a case of "Based on an original meaning that isn't used anymore". I added the necessary historical context.

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, components, customSources

Original meaning: to push down on

Phonosemantic compound. 厂 represents the meaning and 猒 represents the sound. Original form of 壓 (press, push down), related to packed-earth construction of buildings (厂).

Components

厂
厂 Meaning component

The outer walls of buildings in premodern China were filled with earth that was packed down (壓).

Change in meaning
厂 hints at the original meaning of 厭, "to push down on", which is no longer the most common meaning of 厭 in modern Mandarin.
猒
猒 Sound component

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jiepʔep press (v.)
'jiemʔem contented (adj.)

說文解字

《說文》：“厭，笮也。从厂，猒聲。一曰：合也。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.832The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)