堑
qiàn

moat

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 斩 represents the sound. Simplified form of 塹.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
斩
斩 Sound component
zhǎn, zhàn chop

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

塹 moat Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 斬 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
斬
斬 Sound component
chop

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshjemH[tsʰ]am-smoat; dig out
Zhengzhangsʰams
Unicodetsiɛ̀m

說文解字

阬也。一曰大也。从土斬聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)