笨
bèn HSK4

foolish

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and 本 represents the sound.

Components

⺮
⺮ Meaning component
zhú bamboo

⺮ is a component form of 竹.

本
本 Sound component
běn root

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpɯːnʔ
bɯːnʔ

說文解字

《說文》:“笨,竹裏也。从竹,本聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica