行唐县 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

xíng, háng walk

Depicts a street intersection.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hang	[g]ˤaŋ	rank, row
	haeng	Cə.[g]ˤraŋ	walk (v.)
	haengH	[g]ˤraŋ-s	action

說文解字

《說文》：“行，人之步趨也。从彳，从亍。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.138
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

táng exaggerate

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 庚 represents the sound.

Components

口 Meaning component

kǒu, kou mouth

庚 Sound component

gēng 7th heavenly stem

Change in sound

唐 and 庚 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
唐 *r̥ˤaŋ
庚 *kˤraŋ

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

糖塘搪瑭醣溏螗

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thang	r̥ˤaŋ	name of first Shang ruler
	dang	[N-]rˤaŋ	exaggerate; great
	dang	[N].rˤaŋ	棠棣 cherry tree

說文解字

《說文》：“唐，大言也。从口，庚聲。，古文唐，从口、昜。”

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)

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

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

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.