Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

好 (radical 38 女+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 女弓木 (VND), four-corner 4744₇, composition ⿰女子)

References

• KangXi: page 255, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6053
• Dae Jaweon: page 518, character 12
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1028, character 1
• Unihan data for U+597D

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 好
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 女 ‎(“woman”) + 子 ‎(“child”).

The widely accepted meaning of this character is that the characters for "female" (女) and "child" (子) were put together to form a compound because it was good for a woman to have a child. Similarly, it has been proposed that the compound originally refers to the mutual affection between the mother and child, which then extended to mean "good". These theories are supported by the smaller 子 found in some oracle bones and bronze inscriptions.

However, broader interpretations of the second character 子 could lead to other theories. 子 could also mean "son", so it may have meant two children, a boy and a girl next to each other, which is a good fortune to have a boy and a girl. 子 could also mean "man", so it may have referred to the love between a man and a woman, which is good. Duan Yucai, in his annotated version of Shuowen, interpreted it as originally referring to the beauty of 女子 (nǚzǐ, “woman”). Lastly, it could mean that the "attitude" of a girl was considered good.

Etymology

The two pronunciations are cognate – pronunciation 2 is the *-s suffixed form, or exoactive/putative of pronunciation 1, literally "to consider good".

This word has been compared with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hu ‎(“to raise; to rear; to nourish”): Proto-Lolo-Burmese *hu³, Abor-Miri u, Qiang (Mawo) χu, which is only attested in a limited number of languages. If this is correct, it may be related to 畜 (OC *l̥ʰuɡs, *l̥ʰuɡ, *hluɡ, “to raise; to rear; domesticated animal”). Alternatively, compare Tibetan མཁོ ‎(mkho, “necessary, important”).

Cognate with Central Bai hux ‎(“good”), which may be a loanword from Chinese.

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

好

1. good; well
   • Antonyms: 壞／坏 (huài)
   • 你好嗎？ / 你好吗？  ―  Nǐ hǎo ma?  ―  How are you?
   • 真是個好主意！ / 真是个好主意！  ―  Zhēn shì ge hǎo zhǔyì!  ―  That's a good idea!
2. nice; kind
   • 他們對我很好。 / 他们对我很好。  ―  Tāmen duì wǒ hěn hǎo.  ―  They are very kind to me.
3. friendly; close; acquainted
   • 好朋友  ―  hǎo péngyǒu  ―  good friend
4. done; ready
   • 我就要好了。  ―  Wǒ jiù yào hǎo le.  ―  I'll be ready very soon.
5. to be good to, easy to
   • 這水龍頭好擰。 / 这水龙头好拧。  ―  Zhè shuǐlóngtóu hǎo nǐng.  ―  This tap turns easily.
6. (making it) convenient, easy for
   • 把東西收拾乾淨，我好打掃房間。 [MSC, trad.]
     把东西收拾干净，我好打扫房间。 [MSC, simp.]

     Bǎ dōngxī shōushí qiánjìng, wǒ hǎo dǎsǎo fángjiān. [Pinyin]

   • 他們用鏡子反射陽光，好讓救援飛機發現。 [MSC, trad.]
     他们用镜子反射阳光，好让救援飞机发现。 [MSC, simp.]

     Tāmen yòng jìngzǐ fǎnshè yángguāng, hǎo ràng jiùyuán fēijī fāxiàn. [Pinyin]

7. so that
8. to recover from an illness
   • 佢病咗幾個月都仲未好。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     佢病咗几个月都仲未好。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     Keoi⁵ beng⁶ zo² gei² go³ jyut⁶ dou¹ zung⁶ mei⁶hou². [Jyutping]

     He's been sick for several months and still hasn't recovered.

   • 好返 [Cantonese]  ―  hou² faan¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to get better; to recover; to heal
9. (somewhat dialectal) very; quite; rather; so
   • 我好興奮啊！ / 我好兴奋啊！  ―  Wǒ hǎo xìngfèn a!  ―  I'm so excited!
   • 好幾天 / 好几天  ―  hǎo jǐ tiān  ―  quite a few days
   • 我個中文老師好好人㗎！ [Guangzhou Cantonese, trad.]
     我个中文老师好好人㗎！ [Guangzhou Cantonese, simp.]

     Ngo⁵ go³ zung¹ man⁴ lou⁵ si¹hou² hou² jan⁴ gaa²! [Jyutping]

     My Chinese teacher is a very nice person!

10. a pleasure to VERB

    好吃  ―  hǎochī  ―  delicious

    • 好用  ―  hǎoyòng  ―  a joy to use
    • 好聽 / 好听  ―  hǎotīng  ―  pleasant-sounding
11. Particle used after verbs to denote the completion or near-completion of an action.
12. Particle denoting agreement, support or wish to terminate a conversation.
13. Particle denoting dissatisfaction in ironical sentences.

Synonyms

• (very):

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• Vietnamese: hẩu ‎(“kind, good, delicious”)

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

好

1. to be fond of; to like
2. to have a tendency to; to be prone to; good to; easy to
3. (dialectal Mandarin, Wu) can; to be able to
   • ⇒ 會, 可以
   • 儂好流利個講上海話𠲎？ [Shanghainese, trad.]
     侬好流利个讲上海话𠲎？ [Shanghainese, simp.]

     Can you speak Shanghainese fluently?

Compounds

Descendants

References

• (Cantonese) Multi-function Chinese Character Database (漢語多功能字庫)

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. fondness; what one likes

Readings

• Goon: こう (kō)
• Kan’on: こう (kō)
• Kun: このみ (konomi), このむ (konomu), すく (suku), すめよい (sumeyoi), すめよし (sumeyoshi), よい (yoi), よし (yoshi), よしみ (yoshimi), よろし (yoroshi), よろしい (yoroshii)

Compounds

Proper noun

好 ‎(hiragana よしみ, romaji Yoshimi)

1. A male given name

Korean

Hanja

好 • ‎(ho) (hangeul 호, revised ho, McCune-Reischauer ho)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

好 (háo, háu, hảo, hão, hếu, hiếu, hấu, hẩu)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.