甚
shénshèn HSK4

extremely

Original meaning: very peaceful and happy

Depicts putting something sweet in the mouth (甘) with a spoon. Based on the original meaning "very peaceful and happy". The meaning later shifted to "excessive" "extremely".

Components

甘
甘 Iconic component
gān sweetness

Depicts something sweet inside the mouth.

匕
匕 Iconic component
bǐ, pìn spoon, (person)

Depicts a spoon.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 匕 than it was in ancient scripts.
八
八 Distinguishing component
bā eight

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 9 verified)

勘斟湛谌戡葚椹諶尠

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

堪湛

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyimX[t.ɢ][ə]mʔ excessive, very
dzyimH[t.ɢ][ə]mʔ-s excessive

說文解字

《說文》：“甚，尤安樂也。从甘，从匹。耦也。，古文甚。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.386
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)