← Back to history
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
verify
Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources
Depicts a mouth (今) facing a shell (貝). In ancient China, shells were used as currency. 今 also represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | thom | r̥ˤ[ə]m | to covet |
說文解字
《說文》：“貪，欲物也。从貝，今聲。”
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)