嬰
yīng

infant

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approved by Prismcool · Dec 19, 2023, 07:57 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Dec 19, 2023, 07:57 AM

necklace

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning

Original meaning: necklace

Depicts a woman (女) wearing shell ornaments (賏) around her neck. 賏 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "necklace". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "infant" or "baby".

Components

賏
賏 SoundIconic component
yīng, yìng pearls or shells strung together

Depicts two shells (貝) strung together.

女
女 Iconic component
nǚ, nü woman

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jiengʔeŋ surround; necklace
'jiengʔeŋ baby

說文解字

《說文》：“嬰，頸飾也。从女、賏，賏，其連也。”

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)