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

HSK 5

暹罗是泰国的旧称。

Xiān luó shì Tàiguó de jiù chēng.

Siam is the old name for Thailand.

HSK 6

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.