柔嫩
róu​nèn

tender

柔 róu soft, flexible

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

Components

矛
矛 Sound component
máo spear
Change in sound
木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

揉蹂鞣糅猱

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

揉鞣

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyuwnu soft

說文解字

《說文》：“柔，木曲直也。从木，矛聲。”

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)

嫩 nèn soft

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 敕 represents the sound. Simplified form of 嫰.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
敕
敕 Sound component
chì, sōu an imperial order or decree

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangnuːns
Unicodenuə̀n

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang