Original meaning: building
Phonosemantic compound. 宀 represents the meaning and 夗 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "building", now written as 館. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jwonX | [ʔ]o[r]ʔ | curved; to bend |
說文解字
《說文》：“宛，屈艸自覆也。从宀，夗聲。惌，宛或从心。徐灝注箋：“夗者，屈曲之義，宛从宀，蓋謂宮室窈然深曲，引申為凡圓曲之偁，又為屈折之偁。屈草自覆未詳其恉。”
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)
Original meaning: conform, obey
Pictograph of a kneeling person smoothing out their unkempt hair with their hands. Based on the original meaning "conform, obey". The 口 (mouth) component was added later when the character became more abstract.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyak | nak | you |
| nyak | nak | agree |
說文解字
《說文》：“若，擇菜也。从艸、右。右，手也。一曰杜若，香艸。”
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)