Dictionary with ethymology designed for foreigners

[Friday]

Are there any Chinese-English, English-Chinese, or Chinese-Chinese dictionaries that show illustrations of the origins of each character? I've only found books with about 500 characters. I'm looking for a dictionary with the 5,000 to 20,000 character range.

[Olle Linge]

Wait, did you add a an extra zero somewhere? I mean, if you can read 5 000 characters, you should have no problem whatsoever reading Chinese-Chinese dictionaries. Also, the step from 500 to 5 000 is quite big. I can promise you there are no illustrated dictionaries with 20 000 characters, it would take a small fleet of lorries to move it around.

[Silent]

I think OP is not asking for a picture dictionary, but for a ethymology dictionary where the evolution/origins of the characters is shown.

Personally I'm not that interested in the real origin. A decent dictionary that explains the meaning of characters based on the radicals would be very welcome though.That might be a huge aid in guessing the meaning of unknown characters and make it easier to remember characters.

[Daan]

Have you tried http://chineseetymology.org?

[OneEye]

Well, if you've got money to burn, you could always go with the 中文大辭典 or the 漢語大字典. Otherwise I think your best bet may be the site Daan linked.

Silent, you might want to take a look at Rick Harbaugh's website and book.

[tooironic]

Wenlin has such a feature. Just sayin'.