zhè​tiān

this day

zhè this Simplified

Original meaning: to meet

Simplified form of , which originally meant "to meet" and had a pronunciation corresponding to modern Mandarin yàn. later acquired an unrelated pronunciation and meaning through confusion with another character.

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "to meet", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
wén writing

Simplified from the component in the traditional character , which is based on archaic pronunciation yàn.

Sources

Character origin
Wiktionary
Readings & variants
Unicode

tiān, tian sky

Original meaning: head

Depicts a person () with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a head.

Iconic component
dà, dài big

Depicts a person.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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 (1 of 4 verified)

Iconic (1)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthenl̥ˤi[n] heaven
xenl̥ˤi[n] (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-)heaven

說文解字

《說文》:“天,顛也。至高无上,从一、大。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.40-41漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

zhè this Traditional

Original meaning: to meet

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. The character originally meant "to meet" and had a pronunciation corresponding to modern Mandarin yàn. later acquired an unrelated pronunciation and meaning through confusion with .

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "to meet", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Sound component
yán speech

Based on archaic pronunciation yàn.

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangŋrans

Sources

Character origin
Wiktionary
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang