yǎn

jewel

The fire  in a gem  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
wáng king
SoundMeaning component
yán flame

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglamʔ
Unicodeiɛ̌m

說文解字

璧上起美色也。从玉炎聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica