Chinese Character Wiki
㳄

xián

spit, saliva

Depicts drops of spit (氵) coming from an open mouth (欠).

Components
氵 iconic component

氵  Iconic component

shui, shuǐ

  

water

氵 is a component form of 水.

欠 sound,iconic component

欠  Sound Iconic component

qiàn

  

yawn, deficient

Depicts a person with an open mouth.

Evolution

㳄 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
㳄 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
㳄 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
㳄 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

㳄  

xián

(a variant of 涎) spittle, saliva

涎 (㳄) 

xián

variant of 涎[xián]

Most common words with 㳄
Freq.
Word
Meaning

垂涎

to drool

涎

variant of 涎[xián]

垂涎欲滴

to hunger for

垂涎三尺

to yearn for

馋涎欲滴

greedy

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (2 verified)

羡 羨

Iconic component in 4 characters (4 verified)

盗 盜 羡 羨

Remnant component in 2 characters (2 verified)

盗 羡

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*s-N-qa[r]

zjen

xián

saliva (from envy?)

*s-N-qa[r]

zjen

xián

spittle


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

3771st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Unicode

U+3CC4

Shuowen

“，慕欲口液也。从欠，从水。”


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