成年累月 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

chéng, cheng completed

Original meaning: city

Depicts defending city walls (丁) with an axe (戌). 丁 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "city", now written as 城. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

戌 Iconic component

xū, qu 11th terrestrial branch

Depicts an axe.

丁 Sound Iconic component

dīng cubes

Depicts city walls.

Change in sound

成 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
成 *[d]eŋ
丁 *tˤeŋ

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (4 of 6 verified)

城盛诚晟铖誠

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzyeng	[d]eŋ	to become (v.i.)
	dzyeng	m-[d]eŋ	to complete (tr. v)

說文解字

《說文》：“成，就也。从戊，丁聲。，古文成从午。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.963-964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)

nián year

Original meaning: harvest

Pictograph of a person (人) harvesting grain (禾). The harvest season is a yearly event.

Components

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 禾 than it was in ancient scripts.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nen	C.nˤi[ŋ]	harvest; year

說文解字

《說文》：“年，穀孰也。从禾，千聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.574-575
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

lèi, lěi tired

Simplified form of 纍. 田 is shorthand for the phonetic component 畾. 糸 represents the meaning "wind around, bind". The meaning later expanded to "tired".