Dong Chinese dictionary

biàn, pián

convenience

Original meaning:

whip a person

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 𠓥 represents the sound. Originally written as 𠓥, which depicted a hand holding a whip with the 丙 component. Based on the original meaning "whip a person", now written as 鞭. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

亻 Meaning component

rén

person

亻 is a component form of 人.

亻 hints at the original meaning of 便, "whip a person", which is no longer the most common meaning of 便 in modern Mandarin.

𠓥 Sound Meaning component

biān

whip

Modern form looks like unrelated 更.

𠓥 hints at the original meaning of 便, "whip a person", which is no longer the most common meaning of 便 in modern Mandarin.

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠓥 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

便

biàn

convenience, ease; expedient; plain; informal; suitable; convenient; opportune; to urinate or defecate; equivalent to 就[jiù]: then; in that case; even if; soon afterwards

便

pián

see 便宜|便宜[piányi]

Most common words with 便