黑冠椋鸟
hēi​guān​liáng​niǎo

brahminy starling

黑 hēi black

Original meaning: tattoo the face for a crime committed

Pictograph of a person whose face has been tattooed, now written as 墨. In ancient China criminals were punished by having their faces permanently marked. Later writers reanalyzed the character as a chimney being blackened by fire, so the bottom component was written to look like 炎 (flame).

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 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 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

Meaning (3 of 14 verified)

黛黯黝黔黜黠點黢黧黥黟黨黴黪

Sound (3 of 5 verified)

默墨嘿黩黷

Iconic (2)

墨𦰩

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxokm̥ˤək (dialect *m̥ˤ- > xˤ-)black

說文解字

《說文》：“黑，火所熏之色也。从炎上出囦。囦古字。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.760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)

冠 guān, guàn cap

Pictograph of a person (元) wearing a hat (冃). 元 also represents the sound. The 寸 (hand) component was added later to possibly indicate the hat is being held and put onto the head.

Components

冃
冃 Iconic component
mào cap

Modern form looks like unrelated 冖.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 冃 than it was in ancient scripts.
元
元 SoundIconic component
yuán first

Depicts a person.

寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwan[k.ʔ]ˤor cap (n.)
kwanHk.ʔˤor-s cap (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“冠，絭也。所以絭髮，弁冕之總名也。从冖，从元，元亦聲。冠有法制，从寸。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.612
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

椋 liáng fruit

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 京 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡ·raŋ

說文解字

卽來也。从木京聲。

Sources

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

鸟 niǎo bird Simplified

Simplified form of 鳥. Pictograph of a bird.

Component uses

Meaning (6 of 74 verified)

鸡鸣鸿鹏鹰鸭鹅鸦鹤鸽莺鹃鸥鸠鹦鹊鹉鸳枭鹳鸯鹞鹄鸵鹑鹫鹭鸬鹗鹌鹘鹬鸢鸨鸪鹜鹚鸩鸹凫鹕鹧鸷鹩鹆鹂鹨鸱鹁鸫鸶鹈鹱鹪鸺鹮鸲鸸鹇鹣鹋鹛鸮鸻鹎鸰鹡鹍鹒鸧鹙鹠鹴鹔

Sound (2 of 5 verified)

岛袅鸾茑鸻

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

鳥 niǎo bird Traditional

Pictograph of a bird.

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 Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (11 of 77 verified)

焉鵰鶇鳴鷉鸊鶺鴿鴣鴦鵲鷹鴨鷲鴟鶚鷫鳳鵂鴉鴰鴻鶊鷿鵬鴂鸘鳩鳶鴴鵝鶓鶩鶴鴞鵪鷦鷺鴒鷙鸕鵜梟鴔鵑鶉鵯鴈鷂鶯鴛鷗鸚鶖鵡鵠鶼鷯鷀鷄鳧鴆鴕鵾鶘鶬鸝䴉鵒鷈鴇鴯鶻鷸鶹鷓鵓

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

鴴島裊鸞

Remnant (2)

焉裊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttewXtˤiwʔ bird

說文解字

《說文》：“鳥，長尾禽緫名也。象形，鳥之足似匕，从匕。”

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)