淹
yān HSK7

drown

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

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

奄
奄 Sound component
yǎn, yān to enclose

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartʔjemʔ(r)omsubmerge, soak
Zhengzhangqroːm
qrom
qom
qoms
Unicodegyɛm

說文解字

水。出越巂徼外，東入若水。从水奄聲。

Sources

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