魘
yǎn

nightmare

Phonosemantic compound. 鬼 represents the meaning and 厭 represents the sound.

Components

鬼
鬼 Meaning component
guǐ ghost
厭
厭 Sound component
yàn dislike

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqemʔ
qeb

說文解字

㝱驚也。从鬼厭聲。

Sources

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

魇 yǎn nightmare Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 鬼 represents the meaning and 厌 represents the sound. Simplified form of 魘.

Components

鬼
鬼 Meaning component
guǐ ghost
厌
厌 Sound component
yàn dislike

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode