Kūn​lún

Kunlun Mountains

kūn elder brother Simplified

Original meaning: insect

Depicts an insect. Based on the original meaning "insect", now preserved in the word 昆虫. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwon[k]ˤu[n] elder brother

說文解字

《說文》:“昆,同也。从日,从比。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.608
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

lún, lùn logical reasons Simplified

Simplified form of . Depicts an assembly () of writings ().

Components

(upside-down mouth), to assemble
Simplified component
bǐ, pìn spoon, (person)

Shorthand for the component in the traditional character .

Component uses

Sound (3 of 7 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

kūn Kunlun mountains in Jiang Su province. Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shān mountain
Sound component
kūn elder brother

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkuːn
Unicodekuən

說文解字

崑崙,山名。从山昆聲。《漢書》楊雄文通用昆侖。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

Kunlun mountains in Jiangsu Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shān mountain
Sound component
arrange

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangruːn
Unicodeluən

說文解字

《說文新附》:“崙,崑崙也。从山,侖聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica