稱
chēngchèn HSK2

call

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approved by Peter Olson · Aug 21, 2021, 08:47 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Aug 21, 2021, 08:47 PM

also meaning 爯

Changed fields: components

Original meaning: measure weight

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 爯 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "measure weight". The meaning later shifted to "lift", "raise", "praise", "reputation", and "call".

Components

禾
禾 Meaning component

Alludes to measuring the weight of grain.

爯
爯 SoundMeaning component

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyhingtʰəŋ weigh; evaluate; call
tsyhingHmə-tʰəŋ-s steelyard

說文解字

《說文》：“稱，銓也。从禾，爯聲。春分而禾生，日夏至晷景可度，禾有秒，秋分而秒定。律數十二，秒而當一分，十分而寸。其以為重，十二粟為一分，十二分為一銖。故諸程品皆从禾。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫Wiktionary
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)