沉甸甸
chén​diàn​diàn HSK7

heavy

沉 chén, chēn sink

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 冘 represents the sound. Variant of 沈.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

冘
冘 Sound component
yín, yóu to move on

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangl'um
Unicodedjhim

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

甸 diān suburbs of capital

Same in origin to 佃. Depicts a person (勹) working in the fields (田). 田 also represents the sound. The meaning later shifted to "crops" and "suburbs of capital".

Components

勹
勹 Iconic component
bāo wrap

Depicts a person.

田
田 SoundIconic component
tián field

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdenHlˤiŋ-s open space outside city

說文解字

《說文》：“甸，天子五百里地。从田，包省。”

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)