養
yǎng HSK2

raise, bring up

Phonosemantic compound. 食 represents the meaning and 羊 represents the sound.

Components

羊
羊 Sound component
yáng sheep
食
食 Meaning component
shí, shi eat

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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 (0 of 1 verified)

癢

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyangX[ɢ](r)aŋʔ long, longing
yangX[ɢ]aŋʔ nourish, raise

說文解字

《說文》：“養，供養也。从食，羊聲。，古文養。”

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)

养 yǎng raise Simplified

Simplified form of 養. Phonosemantic compound. 食 represents the meaning and 羊 represents the sound.

Components

羊
羊 Sound component
yáng sheep
介
介 Simplified component
jiè to lie between

Shorthand for the 食 component in the traditional character 養.

Sources

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