Chinese Character Wiki
臨

lín

draw near

Original meaning: 

to look down

Depicts a person (人) looking (臣) down at a pile of objects (品). 品 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning, "to look down". The meaning has shifted over time and now means "draw near".

Components
臣 iconic component

臣  Iconic component

chén

  

minister

Depicts an eye.

人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

品 sound,iconic component

品  Sound Iconic component

pǐn

  

product

Here used to depict a pile of objects.

Evolution

臨 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
臨 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
臨 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
臨 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
臨 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

临 (臨) 

lín

draw near, approach; descend; to face; to overlook; to arrive; to be (just) about to; just before

Most common words with 臨
Freq.
Word
Meaning

面临

to face sth

临床

clinical

临时

temporary

光临

to attend

来临

to approach

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*(p.)rum

lim

lín

look down at


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 39.5803% of movies

1063rd most common character in movies

839th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

17

Simplified

临

Unicode

U+81E8

Shuowen

“臨，監臨也。从臥，品聲。”


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