What is the origin of the character 对/對?

Question

I've been studying the etymology of characters lately, and I'm stuck trying to figure out how 对/對 is formed.

It is apparently a compound of 丵 (zhuó; grass, bush) and 寸 (cùn; inch, thumb), plus an extra horizontal stroke at the bottom left of 對, which various sources have different explanations as coming from 口, 士, or 土.

Neither the modern nor Old Chinese pronunciations of 對 (/tuːbs/) resemble any of the possible components: 丵 (/zroːwɢ/), 寸 (/shuːns/), 口 (/kʰoːʔ/), 士 (/zrɯʔ/), 土 (/l̥ʰaːʔ/). This seems to indicate that 對 is not a phonosemantic compound (形声).

But it also doesn't seem to be an associative compound (会意) either, since none of the components seem to be related to any of the meanings of 對.

So how is 對 formed?

Answer 1

「對」is composed of semantic「丵」(picture of a large chisel, and a synonym, cognate, or original form of「鑿」), semantic「土」(soil), and semantic「又」or「寸」(both pictures of hands). The chisel was used as a tool to dig at the earth, shuffle, and (re)pack soil.

商
甲

佚657
合集18755西周
金

𤯍方鼎
集成2614
篆

丵部
說文或體今
楷


　

For reference:

商
甲

粹18
合集32118西周
金

大盂鼎
集成2837西周
金

亳鼎
集成2654戰國・楚
簡・帛

帛乙3.8
長沙子彈庫今
楷


　

The action of moving/shuffling/packing soil > to develop and expand habitable land is the original meaning of「對」. This usage is seen in e.g.

• 《甲骨文合集》36419:「......于東對......」(expand and develop lands in the east)
• 《詩・大雅・皇矣》：「帝作邦作對」(God has expanded territories and founded states)

Since「對」has a whole host of old and modern meanings, it is probably easier to conceptualise most of these meanings as phonetic loans:

• To answer
• Correct, right
• To mix and match
• Pair

---

More generally, the component「丵」indicates the meaning using a weapon to attack something:

• 「對」, to dig at soil;
• 「業」, to attack (another tribe/state/country) > to expand territory and get more resources/govern more land & people, to set up or expand enterprises & industries (創業)
• 「菐」, original form of「撲」(to attack, to hit 撲擊)

Note,「叢」does not contain「丵」, its modern form is a egregious corruption of the original components.

---

References:

• 季旭昇《說文新證》
• 黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》
• 《漢語大詞典》
• 小學堂
• 國學大師
  • 郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
  • 中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》
• 中國哲學書電子化計劃
  • 宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》

Answer 2

well, to make a reasonable guess; have a look of 漢語多功能字庫, please.

對 (u+5c0d) is a character since 甲骨文 (oracle bone script), which is composed by component "丵" (u+4e35), "土" (u+571f), & "又 - 手" (又 originally means right hand).

3 pictures of 對 in oracle bone script:

then, 丵 in small seal script (i can't find this one in oracle bone script at this moment)

土 in oracle bone script

又 - 手 in oracle bone script

the synopsis in this page is:

手持工具開闢土地

the initial meaning of 對 is "using hand (又 - 手) tools (丵) to develop land (土)".

later, in 金文 (bronze script), the form of 對 is slightly changed:

闢地分疆﹒植樹於土﹒立下地界

the meaning of 對 at this time is "planting tree along the boundary of the newly developed land"

with nowadays technology, one might think of "building a fence to protect an area" (e.g. set up barbed wire fence to encircle a farm)

then,

後假借為應對、應答之意

對 was "borrowed" to have the meaning of "response", "reply" or "answer"; which matches of the first two explanations in 國語辭典

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000002366

imo, chopping "對" into "業" & "寸"; errh . . . . "off course" :(

imo, quoting "帝作邦作對" to support the above meaning is appealing.

here's the poem 皇矣 ( with James Legge's english translation)

作之屏之﹒其菑其翳
脩之平之﹒其灌其栵
啟之辟之﹒其檉其椐
攘之剔之﹒其檿其柘

verses in the second group is, opened up, made clearing in forest, paved the area.

then, in third group:

帝省其山﹒柞棫斯拔﹒松柏斯兌

柞 has the meaning of "chop down trees"

帝作邦作對

邦 has the meaning of "planting tree as boundary", similar to 對. imo, "作邦作對" is rhetoric, a "writing in pair". in modern chinese, we still have the saying: 作威作福, or, 作福作威

next, 業 is character since bronze script, which is a 象形字 (pictogram) of "rack for hanging bell, musical instruments". here're 2 samples of 業:

imo, 業 is, unlikely, derived from 對 or 丵.

Answer 3

I don't think there is a real consensus on this, but it seems to be a 会意-type character where the left side is a shortened form of 業.

The meaning of the character may be built up from the combination of these two elements:

• 業 - a pictograph representing a kind of stand for musical instruments facing one another
• 寸 - as a marker of action as with a hand

Source: 学研漢字源 (2006年出版)

Oracle Bone Script Examples:

Oracle Bone Script for 「業」 is -

Oracle Bone Script for 「對」 is

So assuming this explanation, the character would have been composed to call to mind a word describing an action similar to what would happen when a person places musical instruments into a stand facing one another.

As you suspected, I wasn't able to find any source that indicated that any part of this character is used for sound.

UPDATE:

The Chinese publication「字源」mentions several issues with determining the etymology of this character in particular. While there are many theories proposed, none of them has gained a consensus because more research is required.

You can view the 字源 entry for 對 here at: www.guoxuedashi.com