晓
xiǎo HSK6

dawn

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 尧 represents the sound. Simplified form of 曉.

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
尧
尧 Sound component
yáo a legendary ancient emperor-sage

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

曉 xiǎo dawn Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 堯 represents the sound.

Components

日
日 Meaning component
rì sun
堯
堯 Sound component
legendary ancient emperor-sage

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxewXqʰˤewʔunderstand
Zhengzhanghŋeːwʔ
Unicodexěu

說文解字

明也。从日堯聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)