yǎn​xiā

blind

yǎn eye

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
eye
Sound component
gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngonXŋˤə[n]ʔ protrude as a knob
ngeanX[ŋ]ˤ<r>ə[n]ʔ eye

說文解字

《說文》:“眼,目也。从目,聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

xiā blind

To damage  one's eyes  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
eye
SoundMeaning component
hài, hai injure

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqʰraːd

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang