彤
tóng

red

Depicts cinnabar (丹), representing the color red, being the most colorful and vibrant pattern (彡).

Components

丹
丹 Meaning component
dān, dan cinnabar
彡
彡 Iconic component
shān, xiǎn hair

Used here to depict the colorful and vibrant pattern of cinnabar.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
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 Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdowngN-rˤu[m] (dialect: *-um > *-uŋ)red

說文解字

《說文》：“彤，丹飾也。从丹，从彡。彡其畫也。”

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)