陂塘
bēi​táng

pond

陂 bēi, pō, pí dam

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

hill

皮
皮 Sound component
pí skin

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjep(r)a[j]river bank; dike
Zhengzhangpral
prals
Unicodebyɛ
pɑ

說文解字

阪也。一曰沱也。从𨸏皮聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

塘 táng pond

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 唐 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
唐
唐 Sound component
táng exaggerate

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdangm.rˤaŋ
(~ *mə.rˤaŋ)		dam, dike
Zhengzhangl'aːŋ
Unicodedhɑng

說文解字

隄也。从土唐聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)