泛
fàn HSK5

to drift

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 乏 represents the sound. Simplified form of 氾.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

乏
乏 Sound component
fá lack

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartphjomHpʰ(r)[o]m-sto float
Zhengzhangpʰoms
bob
Unicodepiæ̀m

說文解字

浮也。从水乏聲。

Sources

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