阴
yīnYīn HSK2

dark

The traditional characters 陰 (Yin) and 陽 (Yang) were simplified to 阴 and 阳. In Chinese philosophy, the moon (月) corresponds to Yin (阴) and the sun (日) corresponds to Yang (阳).

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

月
月 Simplified component
yuè, yue moon

Simplified from the traditional 陰. Used here since the moon corresponds to the 'Yin' of 'Yin and Yang' in Chinese philosophy.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

荫

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

荫

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

陰 yīn dark Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 今 and 云 represent the sound, while 阝 and 云 represent the meaning.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜. Depicts hills blocking sunlight.

今
今 Sound component
jīn now
云
云 SoundMeaning component
yún clouds

Depicts clouds darkening the sky.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蔭

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

蔭

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'imq(r)um dark

說文解字

闇也。水之南、山之北也。从𨸏侌聲。

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)