miàn​bù HSK7

face

miàn, mian face

Depicts the outline of a face, with an eye () in the middle. In simplified Chinese is also used to mean "noodles", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character .

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts the outline of a face.

Iconic component
eye

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmjienHC.me[n]-s face

說文解字

《說文》:“面,顏前也。从,象人面形。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

part

Original meaning: place in Gansu province

Phonosemantic compound. ⻏ represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
city

⻏ is a component form of .

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "place in Gansu province", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Sound component
pǒu to spit out

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbuwX[b]ˤ(r)oʔ lead (v.), govern

說文解字

天水狄部。从邑咅聲。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica