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颜yán

Character evolution

颜

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Simplified · Today

Shuowen

颜 (yán) originally appeared in oracle bone script as a pictogram of a face with a dot on the forehead, denoting the forehead or complexion. The character is a phonosemantic compound: the radical 页 (head) on the left signals the semantic field of the face, while the phonetic component 彦 (originally meaning “handsome”) provides the sound. Thus the written form combines a visual hint of the forehead with a phonetic clue, reflecting its meaning of “face, forehead, color.”

Pinyin

yán· HSK 2