粦
lín

will-o'-the wisp, phosphorus

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approved by Prismcool · Mar 12, 2026, 06:05 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Mar 12, 2026, 06:05 PM

Changed entry

Changed fields: hint, components, customSources

Depicts phosphorescent light flickering around a person's (大) body with their feet (舛). Original form of 磷.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts phosphorescent light (i.e. a spirit).

大
大 Iconic component

Depicts a person.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 大 than it was in ancient scripts.
舛
舛 Iconic component

Depicts two feet.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlin[r]ə[n] will-o'-the wisp

說文解字

《說文》：“，兵死及牛馬之血為。，鬼火也。从炎、舛。”

Sources

Character origin
林志強《《文源》評注》p.459
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)