饥荒
jī​huāng

famine

饥 jī hunger Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 饣 represents the meaning and 几 represents the sound. Simplified form of 飢.

Components

饣
饣 Meaning component
shí eat

饣 is a component form of 食.

几
几 Sound component
jǐ, jī small table

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

荒 huāng wasteland

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 巟 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass
巟
巟 Sound component
huāng a watery waste

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

慌谎謊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwangm̥ˤaŋ wasteland; uncultivated land

說文解字

《說文》：“荒，蕪也。从艸，巟聲。一曰艸淹地也。”

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)

饑 jī, qí starve Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 飠 represents the meaning and 幾 represents the sound.

Components

飠
飠 Meaning component
eat

飠 is a component form of 食.

幾
幾 Sound component
jǐ how much

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkjɨjkə[j]famine
Zhengzhangkɯl
Unicodegiəi

說文解字

穀不孰爲饑。从食幾聲。

Sources

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