About Etyma
A reading and learning tool for Chinese character evolution.
Etyma helps language learners and character enthusiasts trace any character from today’s form back through traditional, seal script, bronze inscription, and oracle bone — with concise, 说文-style explanations at each step. Lightweight, respectful of the classics, no account required to explore.
Why Etyma?
Why do we need a tool that lets you "time travel" through a character’s history? Because seeing 水 as three streams of water on bone, then in seal script, then in modern form makes the character stick — and respects the original sources (e.g. 《说文解字》). We aim for clarity, minimal friction, and one character at a time.
Data and glyph sources
Our character data is built from in-repo JSON, traceable glyphs from open and attributed sources, and classical references. We currently cover a small set of characters (on the order of tens to a hundred); more are being added.
Glyphs and data are attributed per our source policy: simplified/traditional from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Technology) or 全字庫 (Ministry of Digital Affairs, Taiwan); seal script from 全字庫說文解字; bronze from 汉典 (zdic.net) / zdic-jw-font; oracle bone from Jingyuan Oracle Bone Font (Oracular).
Interpretations and etymological notes are project-level readings, not authoritative academic conclusions. Some characters or stages may still be incomplete.
Full glyph source and attribution requirements →
Glyph and character sources referenced by this project
- Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Technology)(Simplified / Traditional)
- CNS11643 全字庫 (Ministry of Digital Affairs, Taiwan)(Simplified / Traditional)
- 全字庫說文解字 (Seal script)(Seal script)
- 汉典金文 (zdic.net) / zdic-jw-font(Bronze)
- Jingyuan Oracle Bone Font (Oracular)(Oracle bone)
- character-Evolution-Dataset (EVOBC)(Bronze / Oracle (optional))
How to use Etyma
You can get started in a few ways:
- Today’s character — Start from today’s character on the home page
- Search — Search by character, pinyin, or English in the header
- Example: 水 (water) — Open a character page (e.g. 水) and step through its evolution
- My characters — Mark characters as learned and review them in My characters
- Browse — Browse by theme, radical, or HSK level
Etyma is a reading and light learning tool, not a full course. We don’t guarantee exam prep or formal academic claims.
Privacy and data
- You can explore all characters without signing in; we don’t require an account to read.
- If you don’t sign in, your "learned" list is stored only on this device (e.g. in your browser).
- If you sign in, we sync your learned list with our servers (Supabase) so you can see it on other devices.
- We may use third-party services (e.g. Supabase, analytics) only for product operation and anonymous metrics.
- For a fuller policy, see our Privacy page. Privacy policy.
Contact and feedback
We’d love to hear from you.