輕
qīng HSK2

light and quick, agile

Phonosemantic compound. 車 represents the meaning and 巠 represents the sound.

Components

車
車 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
巠
巠 Sound component
jīng warp (textile)

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhjieng[kʰ]eŋ (no palatalization before *-eŋ?)light (≠ heavy)

說文解字

《說文》：“輕，輕車也。从車，巠聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫Chinese Text Project
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

轻 qīng light and quick, agile Simplified

Simplified form of 輕. Phonosemantic compound. 車 represents the meaning and 𢀖 represents the sound.

Components

车
车 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
𢀖
𢀖 Sound component
jīng, xíng warp (textile)

Sources

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