孕期
yùn​qī

pregnancy

孕 yùn be pregnant

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

Components

身
身 Iconic component
shēn body

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

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 身 than it was in ancient scripts.
子
子 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
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

期 qī period of time

Phonosemantic compound. 月 represents the meaning and 其 represents the sound.

Components

月
月 Meaning component
yuè, yue moon
其
其 Sound component
qí its, his, (3p possessive)

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartgi[g](r)ə period of time

說文解字

《說文》：“期，會也。从月，其聲。，古文期，从日、丌。”

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)