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蛋dàn

Character evolution

蛋

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Simplified · Today

Shuowen

Egg. The character 蛋 is composed of the semantic radical 疋 (a foot-like shape, possibly alluding to the oval form of an egg) and the phonetic component 旦 (which also provides the sound). In oracle bone inscriptions, it depicted an egg as an oval shape with a dot inside representing the yolk, and this pictograph evolved into the modern form with 疋 on top and 旦 below. Over time, it came to specifically mean egg in vernacular Chinese, distinguishing it from the more classical term 卵.

Pinyin

dàn· HSK 2