暹 (xiān): (classical) sunrise

Meanings

1 (classical) sunrise
2 Siam (historical name for Thailand, in 暹罗)

Characters

暹

xiān

sunrise (classical); Siam (historical)

Examples

暹罗是泰国的旧称。

Xiān luó shì Tàiguó de jiù chēng.

Siam is the old name for Thailand.

暹罗猫原产于东南亚地区。

Xiān luó māo yuán chǎn yú Dōngnányà dìqū.

The Siamese cat originates from Southeast Asia.

Tips

culture

暹 is a rare classical character encountered almost exclusively in the compound 暹罗 (Xiānluó), the historical Chinese name for the Kingdom of Siam - modern-day Thailand. Thailand officially changed its name in 1939. The word 暹罗猫 (Siamese cat) is still in common use today.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walking; motion (radical form)

Wrapping motion radical at bottom-left, side-form of 辵 - a foot taking a step. Anchors 暹 as a verb of advancing or rising. Original sense was 'sun advancing' - daybreak. Today 暹 mainly survives as the first syllable of 暹罗, the historical Chinese name for Siam (Thailand).

semantic

日 rì

sun; day

Upper-inside sun, four strokes - a small rectangle with one horizontal inside, the disc of the sun. Together with the bird 隹 below, 暹 was pictured as the sun rising past a flying bird at dawn, then walking forward (辶) - the act of daybreak advancing across the sky.

phonetic

隹 zhuī

short-tailed bird

Lower-inside short-tailed-bird, supplying the sound - zhuī drifting to xiān through irregular old-reading paths. Originally a bird in profile; semantically it reinforced the dawn imagery (first birds calling at sunrise). In modern use 暹 functions mostly as a foreign-name transliteration syllable.