染
rǎn HSK5

dye, infect, be contagious

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 杂 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water
杂
杂 Sound component
zá mixed, various
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyemXC.n[a]mʔ to dye

說文解字

《說文》：“染，以繒染為色。从水，杂聲。”

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)