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
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jieng | ʔeŋ | surround; necklace |
| 'jieng | ʔeŋ | 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)