Dong Chinese dictionary

yuán

member

Simplified form of 員. Depicts the round opening (口) of a cooking pot (鼎). Based on the original meaning "round", now written as 圓. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a circle.

贝 Iconic Remnant component

bèi

sea shell

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 贝 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Traditional script

Modern

Simplified script

Modern

Definitions

员 (員)

yuán

member; personnel, staff member; person; employee

Most common words with 员

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	人员	staff
	员	person
	演员	performer
	成员	member
	委员会	committee

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (2 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

Freq.

Word

Meaning