委任
wěi​rèn

appoint

委 wěi bent, winding

Depicts grain (禾) in a bent shape (𠃊).

Components

禾
禾 Iconic component
hé grain stalk
𠃊
𠃊 Iconic component
yǐn hidden area

Used here to depict a bent shape. Modern form looks like 女.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠃊 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

魏矮萎倭诿痿逶諉

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jweq(r)oj 委蛇 compliant, complaisant
'jweXq(r)ojʔ entrust to
'jweXq(r)ojʔ collect; store
'jweXq(r)orʔ bend; hang down

說文解字

《說文》：“委，委隨也。从女，从禾。”

Sources

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

任 rèn responsibility

Original meaning: to hold in arms

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 壬 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

壬
壬 Sound component
rén 9th heavenly stem

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

凭赁賃

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

恁荏

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyimHn[ə]m-s burden; charge (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“任，符也。从人，壬聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)