彩蛋 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

cǎidàn

painted eggshell

cǎi, cai hue, color

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

采 Sound component

cǎi gather, pick

彡 Meaning component

shān, xiǎn hair

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tshojX	s.r̥ˤəʔ	colorful

《說文新附》：“彩，文章也。从彡，采聲。”

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

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

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	l'aːns