荒诞
huāng​dàn HSK7

fantastic

荒 huāng wasteland

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 巟 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass
巟
巟 Sound component
huāng a watery waste

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

慌谎謊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwangm̥ˤaŋ wasteland; uncultivated land

說文解字

《說文》：“荒，蕪也。从艸，巟聲。一曰艸淹地也。”

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)

诞 dàn birth Simplified

Original meaning: tell false words

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 延 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "tell false words". The meaning later shifted to "boast", "increase", and "give birth". Simplified form of 誕.

Components

讠
讠 Meaning component
yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

Change in meaning
讠 hints at the original meaning of 诞, "tell false words", which is no longer the most common meaning of 诞 in modern Mandarin.
延
延 Sound component
yán delay

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

誕 dàn birth Traditional

Original meaning: tell false words

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 延 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "tell false words". The meaning later shifted to "boast", "increase", and "give birth".

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
Change in meaning
言 hints at the original meaning of 誕, "tell false words", which is no longer the most common meaning of 誕 in modern Mandarin.
延
延 Sound component
yán delay

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangl'aːnʔ
Unicodedhɑ̌n

說文解字

《說文》：“誕，詞誕也。从言，延聲。，籀文省。”

Sources

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