看扁
kàn​biǎn

underestimate

看 kàn, kān look

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 倝 represents the sound.

Components

倝
倝 SoundRemnant component
gàn sunrise
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 倝 than it was in ancient scripts.
目
目 Meaning component
mù eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhankʰˤa[r] to watch, guard
khanH[kʰ]ˤa[r]-s gaze at

說文解字

《說文》：“看，睎也。从手下目。，看或从倝。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.268-269
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

扁 biǎn flat

Original meaning: signboard

Pictograph of a signboard attached to a door. Based on the original meaning "signboard". The meaning later shifted to "tablet" and "flat".

Components

户
户 Iconic component
hù, hu door
冊
冊 Iconic component
cè book

Depicts a signboard affixed to a door.


Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (6 of 19 verified)

编篇遍偏骗翩匾蝙谝鳊煸褊碥蹁編騙犏猵稨

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

匾

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpenXpˤe[r]ʔ flat and thin

說文解字

《說文》：“扁，署也。从戶、冊。戶冊者，署門戶之文也。”

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)