yīng

infant

Original meaning: 

necklace

Depicts a woman () wearing shell ornaments () around her neck. also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "necklace". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "infant" or "baby".

Components
賏 sound,iconic component

  Sound Iconic component

yīngyìng

  

pearls or shells strung together

Depicts two shells () strung together.

女 iconic component

  Iconic component

  

woman

Evolution

嬰 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
嬰 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
嬰 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
嬰 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

yīng

baby, infant; bother; infant; baby

Most common words with 嬰
Freq.
Word
Meaning

婴儿

infant

infant

婴幼儿

baby

女婴

female baby

男婴

male baby

Component uses

Sound component in 4 characters (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ʔeŋ

'jieng

yīng

surround; necklace

*ʔeŋ

'jieng

yīng

baby


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 13.7434% of movies

1624th most common character in movies

2115th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

17

Simplified

Unicode

U+5B30

Shuowen

“嬰,頸飾也。从女、賏,賏,其連也。”


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