彩
cǎi HSK3

hue, color

Phonosemantic compound. 彡 represents the meaning and 采 represents the sound.

Components

采
采 Sound component
cǎi gather, pick
彡
彡 Meaning component
shān, xiǎn hair

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshojXs.r̥ˤəʔ colorful

說文解字

《說文新附》：“彩，文章也。从彡，采聲。”

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)