Questions tagged [glyph-origin]
Questions about the graphical origin and evolution of characters. Use [etymology] for the origin and history of Chinese words.
133
questions
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33 views
Isn't it ironic that 淡 uses 炎, duplication of 火, as its phonetic component?
Does the phonetic component for 淡 bemuse anyone else? Why not develop or embrace some other phonetic component that isn't semantically antonymous to 淡? Doubtless, water ( 氵) is 淡, but 火, let alone ...
1
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1answer
40 views
How does 舟 resemble a boat?
I don't wholly fathom this progression chart.
I ticked, in green below, the only glyph that resembles anything like a boat, but that "Bronze Script" doesn't resemble 舟.
Doubtless, boats ...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
Glyph origin of 「凉」 and its relation with 「涼」
「涼」 and 「凉」 are thought to have different origins, and are different characters altogether. From 《洪武正韻牋》:
本有凉涼二字，从冫者寒凉之凉，从氵涼德涼踽之涼。
Both these characters can be used for the meaning cold, but that ...
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2answers
186 views
How was 言 created by adding one mark to 舌?
To create 言 - Wiktionary, mustn't you add more than one mark to 舌? Sorry for not being able to visualize abstractly!
Ideogram (指事): 言 was created by adding a mark to 舌 to indicate movement of the ...
5
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2answers
340 views
Why is the traditional character for 你 also 你 and not 儞 when the traditional character for 尔 is 爾?
I found an interesting question posted on Reddit's /r/ChineseLanguage: If 你 is 亻（人） ＋ 尔 , but 尔’s tradicional version is 爾 , shouldn’t 你’s traditional version be 儞 ?? I don't know the answer so I ...
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2answers
137 views
Relation between「帳」and「賬」
「賬」is said to be a derivative character (分化字) of「帳」, itself being a derivative character of「張」. The meaning of「帳」is related to tents, screens, or curtains:
《玉篇》帷也，張也，幬也。
「賬」has meanings relating to ...
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132 views
Characters' original forms that have no independent usage
I came across this entry for 囗 in 季旭昇's《說文新證》:
釋義：城邑。圍的初文。《說文》釋爲「回也」，不可從。
釋形：古文字未見單獨出現的囗字，但在偏旁中多見，學者都釋爲城邑的象形，可從。《說文》釋爲「象回帀之形」，不可從。
He mentions that 囗 is the original form of 圍, but 囗 was never seen ...
2
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1answer
163 views
Glyph origin of 滅
The original meaning of 滅 is often said to be to extinguish a fire.
《易·大過》過涉滅頂。又火熄也。
And if the original form of 滅 is 烕, then the reason 水 was added to 烕 seems fairly straightforward. To me, the ...
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70 views
What semantic notions underlie 妥 (suitable') with 爫 (爪 or claw) and 女?
Reading 穩妥's etymology spurred me to read 妥's. I screenshot Yellowbridge. I truly hope this etymology doesn't relate to the inhumane barbarism of foot binding in China!
Translingual
Han character
妥 (...
2
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1answer
63 views
What semantic notions underlie 吳 (shouting) with 夨 (man with tilted head)?
Reading 誤's etymology spurred me to read 吳's etymology. Shouting doesn't require you to tilt your head, so why was 夨 used? Why not just use 人?
Glyph origin
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 口 (“...
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1answer
171 views
How does 殳 resemble a hand holding a tool?
After reading the etymology of 設, I read that of one of the underlying ideograms: 殳.
Pictogram (象形) or Ideogrammic compound (會意): 几 + 又 – a hand holding a tool, hence activity.
How does 几 resemble ...
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1answer
166 views
What semantic notions underlie 駁 (to rebut) with 馬 (horses) and/or 爻 (I Ching's hexagrams)?
I'm trying to understand the etymology for definition 3 (to rebut) below in 駁 - Wiktionary. Yellowbridge:
Han character
駁 (radical 187, 馬+4, 14 strokes, cangjie input 尸火大大 (SFKK), four-corner 74340, ...
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3answers
328 views
What semantic notions underlie 頁 ('page') with '預' ('beforehand')?
I'm especially baffled because 'page' is physical, but 'beforehand' isn't physical. I screenshot Yellowbridge
and quote 預 - Wiktionary.
Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *las): phonetic 予 (OC *la, *...
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2answers
79 views
What semantic notions underlie 心 ('heart') with 惑 ('to confuse')?
I know that managing your emotions can save your heart, and "when your emotions adversely affect your brain, your heart is affected as well." Yet how does 心 semantically relate to 惑? Many ...
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3answers
343 views
What does 尔 really mean?
That character is the right part of 你 nu, which means you.
According to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B0%94 it means you. It reads er
According to http://zhongwen.com/bushou.htm I saw this
So ...
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1answer
88 views
How does the hook in 甩 negative 用's meaning?
I read 甩 - Wiktionary, and screenshot Yellowbridge. 甩 appears the antonym of 用, and the hook (that I marked with the green arrow) appears the only difference between their logograms.
What's the ...
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2answers
1k views
Is there any connection between the choice of characters for 九 and 丸?
I just learned the character 丸 and naturally noticed that it is similar to 九 with the additional 点.
Is there any interesting connection between these two characters or is it just a random coincidence ...
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2answers
248 views
What function does the「𠂉」-shaped component have in characters like「𥏻」and「傷」?
戰國文字有從「人」和「昜」而成的「傷」字，但現代標準楷體的「傷」字與其結構有所不同；它含有一個「𠂉」形的部件。「傷」被釋爲從「人」，「𥏻」省聲的字（與說文解字的解釋一樣）：
《說文》：「創也。从人，𥏻省聲。」
煕康字典卻有以下的條目：
《康熙字典》：【說文】同𥏫。
若「𥏻」與「𥏫」有異體關係，那「𠂉」在「𥏻」、「傷」、「殤」、「觴」等字當中有何職能？
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733 views
Why are the words 戒 and 戎 written similarly?
Why are these words written similarly? Do they descend from a common Chinese character? If so, how do you explain the difference in pronunciations among derived words, especially for 戎?
投笔从戎 róng
盗贼 ...
4
votes
1answer
244 views
Glyph origins of the character 岁/歲?
I teach a basic class in Mandarin to kids.
They enjoy seeing where characters came from.
I will be teaching them how to express their ages soon and hence the character 岁.
Is there an interesting ...
4
votes
2answers
645 views
What is the history of the character “耻”?
The meaning of the word is “shame”. I often encounter the version which is written with a 止, but sometimes I confuse it with 恥. It seems that the meanings of 耻 and 恥 are both the same, just that one ...
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1answer
108 views
Is the character 跌 (to trip) a deliberate combination of 足 (foot) and 失 (to lose)?
The character
跌 (diē) = "to trip", etc.
is composed of two parts
on the left there is 足 (zú) = "foot", and
on the right there is 失 (shī) = "to lose", etc.
And indeed 失足 means "to lose one's ...
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3answers
115 views
Glyph origins of 倒 (fall, collapse)
Can anyone tell me the glyph origins for 倒 ?
I searched for it in one of the books but I couldn't find anything.
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3answers
369 views
沒 simplified to 没: What is the origin of the change?
I've just discovered that the simplified form of the character 没 is different from the traditional form (沒). With them both being nearly identical with exception of a single stroke, why was there a ...
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1answer
94 views
Are there web-site with description of visual meaning of symbols?
I'm interested in explanation of why certain symbol means what it means, in other words what object or scene it depicts. There is some books about that, like "Origin and evolution of...", but I wonder ...
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1answer
120 views
Was the character 蹦 (in 蹦极 “bungee jumping”) designed to look like people bungee jumping?
I find myself fascinated by the character
蹦
in the word 蹦极 (meaning "bungee jumping"). It combines:
the radical 足 (meaning "foot"), in the character 跳 meaning "jump";
...
5
votes
3answers
248 views
Why is there an 'ear' component in the character for smell? 闻 聞
Why is there an 'ear' radical in the character for smell? 闻 聞
I find this pretty confusing. Perhaps there is a fun story behind it?
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2answers
175 views
What is the glyph origin of 克?
I've looked around and one place says it's from the skin of an animal, another one says it's an axe striking a beast and another one says it's a battle helmet with an animal skin.
So what's the story ...
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1answer
230 views
Etymology of glyph 袭 = dragon + clothes?
I am new here, recently discovered this site to learn more about glyph origins of certain characters.
I often see this character 袭 when related to terrorist attacks in the news. 袭 means raid or ...
5
votes
1answer
393 views
Meaning of the elements of 爵 (baron)
The 4 elements of this character are well known (claw/plectrum; net; north-east; short measurement), but I cannot see any connection between them that might result in the concept of 'baron'. Can ...
3
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1answer
156 views
Handwritten shape of 「舟」 when it appears like 「月」 and the component form of 「肉」
The shape of 「肉」 in its component form is differentiated from 「月」 in Taiwan and sometimes in Hong Kong's table of standard character forms, but appear the same in other regions' standards and in ...
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3answers
236 views
兹 as a phonetic component
Wiktionary explains the two glyph origins of 「兹」 as the following:
Unorthodox variant simplified from 茲 with 䒑 as the top component instead of 艹 found in the Ming dynasty orthographic dictionary ...
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1answer
272 views
Glyph origins of '進'
Motivation
While writing my recent meta question, I've cited Dr. Gavin Chiu (趙善軒)'s article to explain the character '進' and its simplified character '井'. However, a user points out that the linked ...
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1answer
335 views
How does 巨 resemble a hand (彐) holding a carpenter's square (工)?
Left screenshot is from Yellowbridge; right from Richard Sears (Uncle Hanzi).
I circled in green the lone pictogram that most obviously pictures a hand holding a carpenter's square.
For ...
3
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1answer
161 views
Etymologies and relationship between the characters 錘, 槌, 鎚, and 椎
Wiktionary lists 錘, 槌, 鎚, and 椎 to all have the meaning of "hammer", but I'm not sure if that was the original meaning for any of those characters, and they all (or at least some) appear to ...
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1answer
518 views
What 蛋 is referring to in “完蛋了”
完蛋了 means: Done for; ruined; finished; goose is cooked. It is the Mandarin counterpart of a Cantonese term "玩完" (game over)
I am curious about what 蛋 is referring to. Without any reference, I can ...
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2answers
215 views
Glyph origins of the character 拜
I've seen somewhere that it was two hands together greeting someone. It makes some sense since the left part does look like 手, but the right part doesn't, and I don't remember any other characters ...
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1answer
583 views
乘 vs 承 - are they related?
Just learnt a few verbs which use 乘 and 承 and was thinking that, not only do they look and sound mighty similar, but their ultimate meanings are both related to 'transfering' something. 乘 with ...
4
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1answer
264 views
Any ideas on the origin of the 绍 character?
Any ideas on the origin of the 绍 character? Studying for finals and I need a coherent way to associate the silk, knife, and mouth radicals. In the phrase 介绍.
3
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2answers
253 views
How does 土口 match 'a person wearing a pendant'?
Please see the green arrow beneath. I can't copy and paste from Yellowbridge for 袁:
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2answers
208 views
What is the relation between 寨 (zhài, “stockade, stronghold, fort”) and 塞 (sài, “place of strategic importance; pass; fortress”)?
Most dictionaries say 寨 = 塞 + 木, but on its face, we could just as easily have 塞 = 寨 + 土.
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1answer
255 views
Why is “quotient” translated as 「商」 in mathematics?
Wikipedia defines "quotient" as:
In arithmetic, a quotient (from Latin: quotiens "how many times", pronounced /ˈkwoʊʃənt/) is the quantity produced by the division of two numbers.[1]
Does the ...
2
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2answers
274 views
What's this character that looks like 七 with a ～ in the middle? And what's its history?
Having a hard time figuring out what this guy is:
The equivalent Wikisource page for the material I'm working with says that it is:
甚
Perhaps it is
Which zisea says it is:
同【甚】字。
If it is 七 +...
0
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1answer
101 views
Determining what the meaning of part of a character '益' is
I can see that it have an equal number of strokes above and below the yi stroke not part of the blood radical. I am not sure of what this character is..I mean..I know 高兴, that is the closest that I ...
2
votes
2answers
333 views
What is the difference between 嫐 and 嬲?
According to mdbg.net, both characters have a meaning of "to tease":
嬲
to tease / to disturb
嫐
to tease / to play around with
Are both of them primarily used as synonyms for "tease"? Or are they ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
The glyph origins of 半
Pursuant to the question below about 伴：
What intrigues me is what 8 八 and a cow 牛(or 2 cows) have to do with this?
chineseetymology.org says for 半: 'Augmented pictograph 半. Augmentation 八 (...
2
votes
1answer
130 views
Why is 伴 used for buddy?
Is it true that 伴 comes from the word, 半(half) and thus can be interpreted as (significant other person)?
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2answers
175 views
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2answers
578 views
Why does 写 not have a dot on top?
Many hanzi have a roof on top, including a dot. From the HSK2 list, we have:
客 家 字 完 室 安 它
The commonly used hanzi 写 is unlike these because it does not have a dot on top.
Chinese-tools.com ...
3
votes
3answers
207 views
Glyph origins and meaning of 敢
What is the meaning and etymology of the LEFT component of this character: 敢 ?
I have already checked Wiltionary and Chinese Text Project.
Thank you for the help.
