diàn​rǔ

disgrace

diàn, diān flaw in gem

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
wáng king
Sound component
zhàn divine

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttemXtˤemʔblack spot
temHtˤemʔ-sblack spot, flaw
Zhengzhangteːmʔ
teːms

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

humiliate

Original meaning: to use a farming tool for weeding

Depicts a hand () using a farming tool () to remove dirty weeds. Based on the original meaning "to use a farming tool for weeding", now written as . The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "disgrace" and "humiliate".

Components

Iconic component
chén early morning

Depicts a farming tool.

Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Character Evolution

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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyowknok disgrace

說文解字

《說文》:“辱,耻也。从寸在辰下。失耕時,於封畺上戮之也。辰者,農之時也。故房星為辰,田候也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1285
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica