Definitions

qiàn wooden tablet; edition

Etymology phono-semantic

wood

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

椠 (traditional: 槧) is a phono-semantic compound. Its semantic component 木 (wood) sits below the phonetic component 斩 (traditional: 斬), reflecting the early practice of carving texts into wooden blocks for printing or record-keeping. The character originally meant a wooden tablet or printing block, later extending to refer to a specific edition or version of a published book.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern