謙
qiān

humble

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 兼 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
兼
兼 Sound component
jiān double

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhemk-r̥ˤem modest

說文解字

《說文》：“謙，敬也。从言，兼聲。”

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)

谦 qiān humble Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 兼 represents the sound. Simplified form of 謙.

Components

讠
讠 Meaning component
yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

兼
兼 Sound component
jiān double

Sources

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