妙龄
miào​líng

prime of youth

妙 miào mysterious

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 少 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
少
少 Sound component
shǎo, shao, shào few

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmjiewH[m]ew(ʔ)-s marvelous

Sources

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

龄 líng age Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 齿 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound. Simplified form of 齡.

Components

齿
齿 Meaning component
chǐ teeth
令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Sources

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

齡 líng age Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 齒 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound.

Components

齒
齒 Meaning component
chǐ teeth
令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangreːŋ
Unicodeleng

說文解字

《說文新附》：“齡，年也。从齒，令聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)