念
niàn HSK3

think of, ready

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 今 represents the sound.

Components

心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart
今
今 Sound component
jīn now
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 6 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnemHnˤim-s think of

說文解字

《說文》:“念,常思也。从心,今聲。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.927
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica