xián

bit

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
jīn metal
Sound component
xíng, háng walk

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthaem[g]ˤr[a]m a bit

說文解字

《說文》:“銜,馬勒口中。从金,从行。銜,行馬者也。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

xián bit Simplified

Components

Sound component
xíng, háng walk
Meaning component
jīn metal

metal

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode