Chinese

源

yuán
source of a river; headwaters; headspring; fountainhead
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • radical 水
  • 13 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ŋʷan) and ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): semantic 水 (“water”) + phonetic 原 (OC *ŋʷan, “origin”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
  • soundChinese原 “original; former; primary; prime; virgin”
    • ideaChinese泉 “springwater (Classifier: 口 m; 眼 m)”
      • ideaChinese白 “white”
    • ideaChinese厂 “cliff; habitable cave on a cliff”

Sources