枕
zhěn HSK7

pillow

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 冘 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
冘
冘 Sound component
yín, yóu to move on

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyimX[t.k][ə]mʔpillow
tsyimH[t.k][ə]mʔ-suse as a pillow
Zhengzhangl'um
ʔljumʔ
ʔljums
Unicodejǐm

說文解字

臥所薦首者。从木冘聲。

Sources

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