食盐
shí​yán

salt

食 shí, shi eat

Depicts a mouth (亼) eating from a food vessel (皀).

Components

亼
亼 Iconic component
jí (upside-down mouth), to assemble

Depicts an upside-down mouth.

皀
皀 Iconic component
jí, bī, xiāng one grain

Depicts a food vessel.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 皀 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (4 of 11 verified)

餐饕飧飨饔餍餮養饜飬饗

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzyikmə-lək eat
ziHs-m-lək-s feed (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“食，一米也。从皀，亼聲。或說亼皀也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.435-436
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

盐 yán salt Simplified

Simplified form of 鹽. Phonosemantic compound. 監 represents the sound and 鹵 represents the meaning.

Components

監
監 SoundSimplified component
jiān watch carefully

Shorthand for the sound component 監 in the traditional character 鹽.

卜
卜 Simplified component
bo fortune telling

Shorthand for the meaning component 鹵 in the traditional character 鹽.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

鹽 yán salt Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 監 represents the sound and 鹵 represents the meaning.

Components

監
監 Sound component
jiān watch carefully
鹵
鹵 Meaning component
salt

salt

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyem[ɢr][o]m salt (n.)
yemH[ɢr][o]m-s salt (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“鹽，鹹也。从鹵，監聲。古者宿沙初作煮海鹽。”

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)