韓
Hán

Korea

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approved by cochleoid · Jun 1, 2022, 08:06 PM · Reviewed by cochleoid on Jun 1, 2022, 08:06 PM

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Original meaning: fence surrounding a well

Phonosemantic compound. 韋 represents the meaning and 倝 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "fence surrounding a well". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

倝
倝 SoundRemnant component
gàn sunrise
韋
韋 Meaning component
(surround a city), tanned leather
Change in meaning
韋 hints at the original meaning of 韓, "fence surrounding a well", which is no longer the most common meaning of 韓 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthan[g]ˤar (state in the Korean peninsula; Three Kingdoms period)

說文解字

《說文》：“，井垣也。从韋，取其帀也，倝聲。”

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)