有钱
yǒu​qián

wealthy

有 yǒu have

Depicts a hand (又) holding meat (肉). In Oracle script this character was written the same as the phonetically similar 又, but later the 肉 component was added to distinguish them.

Components

又
又 SoundIconic component
yòu hand
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 又 than it was in ancient scripts.
肉
肉 Iconic component
ròu meat

Deceptively similar but unrelated to the character for moon (月).

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 9 verified)

郁囿宥鲔侑铕洧鮪迶

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

贿賄

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjuwX[ɢ]ʷəʔ have, exist

說文解字

《說文》：“有，不宜有也。《春秋傳》曰：‘日月有食之。’从月，又聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.550
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

钱 qián, qian money Simplified

Simplified form of 錢. Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 戋 represents the sound.

Components

钅
钅 Meaning component
jīn metal
戋
戋 Sound component
jiān, cán small

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

錢 qián, qian money Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 戔 represents the sound.

Components

釒
釒 Meaning component
jīn metal
戔
戔 Sound component
small

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzjenN-ts[a][n] coin, money

說文解字

《說文》：“錢，銚也，古田器。从金，戔聲。《詩》曰：‘庤乃錢鎛。’”

Sources

Character origin
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)