zēng​fú

amplification

zēng increase

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
céng already

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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsongs-tˤəŋ increase

說文解字

《說文》:“增,益也。从土,曾聲。”

Sources

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

piece

A roll  of cloth  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
jīn cloth
SoundMeaning component
fú, bì to fill

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpikp<r>əkstrap around the leg
pjuwkpəkstrap around the leg; width (of cloth); wide
Zhengzhangprɯɡ
pɯɡ
Unicodebiuk

說文解字

布帛廣也。从巾畐聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica