耳背
ěr​bèi

hard of hearing

耳 ěr ear

Pictograph of an ear.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (13 of 29 verified)

联职闻聪聊耸耻聘耽聋聆珥耷聒聩聃佴聱聽聍耵聲聞聯職聰聵聾聳

Sound (0 of 7 verified)

饵茸珥洱铒佴餌

Iconic (5)

取聂聖聶咠

Unknown (0 of 2 verified)

耿恥

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyiXC.nəʔ ear
nyiXnəʔ #NAME?

說文解字

《說文》：“耳，主聽也。象形。”

Sources

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

背 bèi, bēi back

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 北 represents the sound.

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

北
北 SoundMeaning component
běi north

北 also serves as a meaning component.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

褙揹

Meaning (1)

揹

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbwojHm-pˤək-s turn the back on
pwojHpˤək-s the back

說文解字

《說文》：“背，也。从肉，北聲。”

Sources

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