山药蛋 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

Chinese Character Wiki Wiki

shānyaodàn

potato

shān mountain

Pictograph of a mountain.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

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 Jin 266-420 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 11 verified)

仙灿讪汕舢疝籼氙訕赸屾

Simplified (1)

Deleted (1)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	srean	s-ŋrar	mountain, hill

說文解字

《說文》：“山，宣也。宣气，生萬物，有石而高。象形。”

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)

yào medicine Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 约 represents the sound. Simplified form of 藥.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

约 Sound component

yuē agreement

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

dàn eggs

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 延 represents the sound.

Components

延 Sound Remnant component

yán delay

Change in sound

蛋 and 延 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
蛋 l'aːns
延 *la[n]

虫 Meaning component

chóng bug, insect

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	l'aːns

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang

yào medicine Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 樂 represents the sound.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

樂 Sound component

lè, yuè happy, music

Change in sound

藥 and 樂 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
藥 yak
樂 lak

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 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 Western Jin 266-316 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	yak	m-r[e]wk	medicinal plant

說文解字

《說文》：“藥，治病艸。从艸，樂聲。”

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)