弘
hóng HSK7

vast

Original meaning: loud sound

Phonosemantic compound. 弓 represents the sound and 口 represents the original meaning "loud sound". The meaning later extended to "great", "vast".

Components

弓
弓 Sound component
gōng bow
口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
Change in meaning
口 hints at the original meaning of 弘, "loud sound", which is no longer the most common meaning of 弘 in modern Mandarin.
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 口 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

泓

Meaning (1)

泓

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwong[ɢ]ʷˤəŋ vast

說文解字

《說文》：“弘，弓聲也。从弓，厶聲。厶，古文肱字。”

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)