HSK6

desire

Phonosemantic compound. , depicting a person with an open mouth, represents the meaning, while represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person with an open mouth.

Sound component
valley, ravine

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 (1)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyowkɢ(r)ok desire (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“欲,貪欲也。从欠,谷聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica