Definify.com

Definition 2024


U+5B57, 字
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5B57

[U+5B56]
CJK Unified Ideographs
[U+5B58]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

(radical 39 +3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 十弓木 (JND), four-corner 30407, composition)

References

  • KangXi: page 277, character 18
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6942
  • Dae Jaweon: page 545, character 7
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1010, character 2
  • Unihan data for U+5B57

Chinese

simp. and trad.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
*ʔslɯ
*ʔslɯ, *ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯ, *zlɯs
*ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯʔ
*ʔslɯʔ
*zlɯs
*zlɯs
*zlɯs
*zlɯs
*rɯʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *zlɯs) : semantic  (roof) + phonetic  (OC *ʔslɯʔ, child).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tsa ~ za (child; to give birth; to take care; to be kind). Related to:

  • (OC *ʔslɯʔ, “child, son”) (also its phonetic component)
  • (OC *zɯ, “to be kind, loving”)
  • (OC *ʔsɯ, “to nourish, to grow”)
  • (OC *ljɯ, “word, term”)
  • (OC *ljɯ, “word, from testimony”)

Original sense (1): “to become pregnant, to give birth to, to nurture, to love” has essentially become obsolete. The sense (2) “letter, character” is either from a different root or a derivation from the sense “to produce, to generate”.

Cognate with Tibetan ཚ་བོ (tsha bo, nephew), Tibetan ཚ་རུས (tsha rus, descendant), Tibetan བཙའ་བ (btsa' ba, to give birth to; to guard), Tibetan མཛའ་བ (mdza' ba, kind, peaceful, friendly) (Quan, 1996).

Pronunciation



  • Dialectal data
Variety Location
Mandarin Beijing /t͡sz̩⁵¹/
Harbin /t͡sz̩⁵³/
Tianjin /ye⁵³/
Jinan /t͡sz̩²¹/
Qingdao /t͡sz̩⁴²/
Zhengzhou /t͡sz̩³¹²/
Xi'an /t͡sz̩⁴⁴/
Xining /t͡sz̩²¹³/
Yinchuan /t͡sz̩¹³/
Lanzhou /t͡sz̩¹³/
Ürümqi /t͡sz̩²¹³/
Wuhan /t͡sz̩³⁵/
Chengdu /t͡sz̩¹³/
Guiyang /t͡sz̩²¹³/
Kunming /t͡sz̩²¹²/
Nanjing /t͡sz̩⁴⁴/
Hefei /t͡sz̩⁵³/
Jin Taiyuan /t͡sz̩⁴⁵/
Pingyao /t͡sz̩³⁵/
Hohhot /t͡sz̩⁵⁵/
Wu Shanghai /zz̩²³/
Suzhou /zz̩³¹/
Hangzhou /zz̩¹³/
Wenzhou /zz̩²²/
Hui Shexian /t͡sʰz̩²²/
Tunxi /t͡sʰz̩¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /t͡sz̩⁵⁵/
/t͡sz̩¹¹/
Xiangtan /d͡zz̩²¹/
Gan Nanchang /t͡sʰz̩²¹/
Hakka Meixian /sz̩⁵³/
Taoyuan /sï⁵⁵/
Cantonese Guangzhou /t͡si²²/
Nanning /t͡sz̩²²/
Hong Kong /t͡si²²/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /t͡su²²/
/li²²/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /t͡sɛi²⁴²/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /t͡si⁴⁴/
Shantou (Min Nan) /zi³¹/
Haikou (Min Nan) /t͡si³³/
/tu²³/ 訓書

Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (15)
Final () (19)
Tone (調) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () III
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/d͡zɨH/
Pan
Wuyun
/d͡zɨH/
Shao
Rongfen
/d͡zieH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/d͡zɨH/
Li
Rong
/d͡ziəH/
Wang
Li
/d͡zĭəH/
Bernard
Karlgren
/d͡zʱiH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
Middle
Chinese
‹ dziH ›
Old
Chinese
/*mə-dzə(ʔ)-s/
English breed, love (v.); character

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character
Reading # 1/1
No. 17864
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*zlɯs/
Notes

Definitions

  1. to give birth to; to deliver a baby; to bring into the world
  2. to be pregnant; to be carrying a baby
  3. (historical, of a girl) to be betrothed; to be allowed to marry
    閨中 / 闺中   dàiguīzhōng   to stay in the boudoir waiting to be betrothed
  4. to bring up; to raise; to rear (a child)
  5. to love; to cherish; to care very much for
  6. to educate; to teach; to instruct
  7. to govern; to administer
  8. Chinese character; hanzi   (Classifier: )
    這個怎麼 / 这个怎么   Zhège zěnme niàn?   How do you read this character?
  9. word; term; wording; diction
    /    Zhè pīn cuò le.   This word is wrongly spelt; you've left out a letter.
  10. (computing) word
  11. handwriting; writing
       Tā de hěn chà.   His handwriting is very bad.
  12. (historical) courtesy name; Chinese-style name (a name traditionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20)
  13. (historical) to style; to give someone a courtesy name
  14. letter; symbol; character
          letter
       chuàn   character string
  15. (calligraphy) style of handwriting; printing type
  16. (calligraphy) (a calligrapher's) calligraphy work
  17. written letter; message; correspondence
  18. receipt; contract; slip
  19. pronunciation of a character; pronunciation
  20. (Cantonese) five minutes (derived from the locations of 1 to 12 on a clock face)
    / [Cantonese]   saam1 go3zi6 [Jyutping]   fifteen minutes [i.e. when the minute hand points to 3]
  21. A surname.

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic ():

Others:

  • Proto-Tai: *ɟɤ:ᴮ (name)
  • Vietnamese: chữ (script; letter; writing; word)

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term

Grade: 1
on'yomi

Borrowed from Middle Chinese 字 with the southern pronunciation (kango, Go-on).

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana , romaji ji)

  1. a letter, character
    この () (なん) ()みますか?
    Kono ji wa nan to yomimasuka?
    How do you pronounce this character?
  2. handwriting
    彼女 (かのじょ) ()上手 (うま)い。
    Kanojo wa ji ga umai.
    She has good handwriting.

Counter

(hiragana , romaji -ji)

  1. letters, characters
    40字以内 (よんじゅうじいない) ()いてください。
    Yon jū ji inai de kaite kudasai.
    Please write it down in 40 letters or fewer.

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
あざ
Grade: 1
kun'yomi

Shortened form of あざな azana "a section of a village" of ancient Japanese origin (wago).

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana あざ, romaji aza)

  1. a section of a village
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
あざな
Grade: 1
kun'yomi

Of ancient Japanese origin (wago).

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana あざな, romaji azana)

  1. courtesy name
  2. nickname
  3. a section of a village

References

  1. 1 2 3 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. 1 2 3 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

(ja)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul):  (McCune-Reischauer: cha)
  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

(chữ, tự, tợ)

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

References

  • Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển, Hà Nội, 1942
  • Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
  • Vũ Văn Kính: Đại Tự Điển Chữ Nôm, NXB Văn Nghệ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999

Compounds