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Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC 
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
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Original meaning: burn
Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 肰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burn", now written as 燃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyen | [n]a[n] | so, thus; (adv suffix) |
說文解字
《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”
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)