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The character derives from its proto-form 悤, which represents a heart/mind (心) with a big dot on top indicating a hole. According to Qiu Xigui (裘錫圭) and Shen Pei (沈培), it indicates an open heart and an open mind. Its original meaning was "intelligent". Later, it became Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sʰloːŋ): phonetic 囪(OC *sʰloːŋ) + semantic 心(“heart”), hence the dot on top became the pictogram of a window.
Eventually, the character evolved into 聰, i.e., Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sʰloːŋ): semantic 耳(“ear”) + phonetic 悤(), in which the ear symbolizes somebody willing to listen and learn fastly through hearing.