lín

will-o'-the wisp, phosphorus

← Back to history
approved by Prismcool · May 18, 2024, 05:51 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on May 18, 2024, 05:51 AM

Wording change

Changed fields: hint

Depicts a spirit flickering around a person's () body with their feet ().

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

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

Iconic component
dà, dài big

Depicts a person.

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

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