yùn HSK7

be pregnant

Pictograph of a pregnant woman () with a child () inside of her body.

Components

Iconic component
shēn body

Depicts a woman with her uterus emphasized. Modern form looks like unrelated .

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyingHl[i]ŋ-s pregnant

說文解字

《說文》:“孕,褢子也。从子,从几。”

Sources

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