荏
rěn

beans

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

herb

任
任 Sound component
rèn responsibility

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyimXn[ə]mʔ (< *num?)a kind of big beans
Zhengzhangnjɯmʔ
Unicodenjǐm

說文解字

桂荏，蘇。从艸任聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)