péng

friend

Original meaning: 

pair of strings of jade

Depicts a pair of strings of jade mounted together. The meaning later shifted to "friend". Not related to (moon), despite the visual similarity.

Evolution

朋 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
朋 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
朋 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
朋 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

péng

friend, pal, acquaintance; friend

Most common words with 朋
Freq.
Word
Meaning

朋友

friend

女朋友

girlfriend

男朋友

boyfriend

小朋友

child

好朋友

good friend

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[b]ˤəŋ

bong

péng

set of cowries; friend


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 90.9018% of movies

245th most common character in movies

882nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+670B


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