yǎn
overflow
Original meaning:
long river
Same origin as 永. Pictograph of a long river with a tributary. The meaning later shifted to "overflow" and "spill over".
Evolution
Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
yǎn
overflow, spill over, spread out; to spread out; to develop; to overflow; to amplify; superfluous
Most common words with 衍
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
perfunctory | ||
to multiply | ||
to derive | ||
to develop | ||
to skimp |
Component uses
Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*N-q(r)anʔ | yenX | yǎn | overflow |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 2.3867% of movies
2984th most common character in movies
2437th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 9 |
Unicode | U+884D |
Shuowen | “衍，水朝宗于海也。从水，从行。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.796
裘錫圭《裘錫圭學術文集》Vol 1, p.382
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