燃煤
rán​méi

coal fuel

燃 rán burn

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 然 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
然
然 Sound component
rán, ran yes

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyenC.na[n] burn

說文解字

《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”

Sources

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

煤 méi coal

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 某 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
某
某 Sound component
mǒu certain thing or person

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmwojmˤəsoot; coal
Zhengzhangmɯː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang