huáng

yellow

Original meaning: 

physically impaired

Pictograph of a person with a person with a large belly, representing someone deformed. Based on the original meaning "physically impaired". Later meaning shifted to "yellow; sallow", a skin color associated with illness.

Evolution

黃 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
黃 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
黃 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
黃 Clerical script Jin dynasty (266-420 AD)

Clerical script

Jin dynasty (266-420 AD)
黃 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

huáng

yellow; surname; pornographic; to fall through

() 

Huáng

surname Huang or Hwang

Most common words with 黃
Freq.
Word
Meaning

yellow

黄金

gold

黄色

yellow (color)

黄油

butter

黄河

Yellow River or Huang He

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*N-kʷˤaŋ

hwang

huáng

yellow


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 29.4410% of movies

1142nd most common character in movies

561st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

12

Simplified

Unicode

U+9EC3

Shuowen

“黃,地之色也。从田,从炗,炗亦聲。炗,古文光。,古文黃。”


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