秒针 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

miǎozhēn

second hand

miǎo second (time), beard of grain or corn

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 少 represents the sound.

Components

禾 Meaning component

hé grain stalk

少 Sound component

shǎo, shao, shào few

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	mewʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“秒，禾芒也。从禾，少聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

zhēn needle Simplified

Simplified form of 針. Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

钅 Meaning component

jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

针 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
针 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

zhēn needle Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 十 represents the sound.

Components

釒 Meaning component

jīn metal

十 Sound component

shí ten

Change in sound

針 and 十 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
針 *t.[k]əm
十 *t.[g]əp

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyim	t.[k]əm	needle

Sources

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

秒 miǎo second (time), beard of grain or corn

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

针 zhēn needle Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

針 zhēn needle Traditional

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

miǎo second (time), beard of grain or corn

zhēn needle Simplified

zhēn needle Traditional