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Definition 2024

左

左

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

左 (radical 48 工+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 大一 (KM), four-corner 40011, composition ⿸𠂇工)

Descendants

References

  • KangXi: page 325, character 8
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8720
  • Dae Jaweon: page 626, character 7
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 411, character 5
  • Unihan data for U+5DE6

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 左

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 左
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (左) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
左 *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls
佐 *ʔsaːls
袏 *ʔslaːls
蹉 *sʰlaːl
瑳 *sʰlaːl, *sʰlaːlʔ
搓 *sʰlaːl
磋 *sʰlaːl
溠 *sʰlaːl, *sraːl, *ʔsraːls
傞 *sʰlaːl, *slaːl
醝 *zlaːl
瘥 *zlaːl, *ʔsljal, *sʰreːls
鹺 *zlaːl
嵯 *zlaːl, *sʰral
嵳 *zlaːl
蒫 *zlaːl, *ʔsljal, *ʔslɯl
艖 *zlaːl, *sʰraːl
齹 *zlaːl, *sʰral, *zral
縒 *slaːlʔ, *sʰral, *sʰlaːɡ
褨 *slaːlʔ
嗟 *ʔsljal
差 *sʰraːl, *sʰraːls, *sʰreːl, *sʰreːl, *sʰreːls, *sʰral
鎈 *sʰraːl
槎 *zraːl, *zraːlʔ
髊 *zlals

Originally as 𠂇 in the oracle bone script: Pictogram (象形) – a left hand. Compare 又 (“right hand”).

Late bronze inscription forms show an added 工 (“work; to assist?”) component, i.e. the current form is a phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls) : phonetic 𠂇 + semantic 工, representing the original form of 佐 (OC *ʔsaːls, “to assist”).

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 左
Mandarin Beijing /t͡suo²¹⁴/
Harbin /t͡suo²¹³/
Tianjin /t͡suo¹³/
Jinan /t͡suə²¹/
Qingdao /t͡suə²¹³/
Zhengzhou /t͡suo⁵³/
Xi'an /t͡suo⁵³/
Xining /t͡su⁵³/
Yinchuan /t͡suə⁵³/
Lanzhou /t͡suə⁴⁴²/
Ürümqi /t͡suɤ⁵¹/
Wuhan /t͡suo⁴²/
Chengdu /t͡so⁵³/
Guiyang /t͡so⁴²/
Kunming /t͡so⁵³/
Nanjing /t͡so²¹²/
Hefei /t͡sʊ²⁴/
Jin Taiyuan /t͡sɤ⁵³/
Pingyao /t͡ɕie̞³⁵/
Hohhot /t͡suɤ⁵³/
Wu Shanghai /t͡su³⁵/
Suzhou /t͡səu⁵¹³/
Hangzhou /t͡so⁵³/
Wenzhou /tɤu³⁵/
Hui Shexian /t͡so³⁵/
Tunxi /t͡so³¹/
Xiang Changsha /t͡so⁴¹/
Xiangtan /t͡so⁴²/
Gan Nanchang /t͡so²¹³/
Hakka Meixian /t͡so³¹/
Taoyuan /t͡so³¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Nanning /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Hong Kong /t͡sɔ³⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /t͡so⁵³/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /t͡so³²/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /t͡sɔ²¹/
Shantou (Min Nan) /t͡so⁵³/
Haikou (Min Nan) /to²¹³/
Rime
Character 左 左
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Initial (聲) 精 (13) 精 (13)
Final (韻) 歌 (94) 歌 (94)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) I I
Fanqie 臧可切 則箇切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /t͡saX/ /t͡saH/
Li
Rong		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Wang
Li		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /t͡sɑX/ /t͡sɑH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 zuǒ zuò
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 左 左 左
Reading # 1/3 2/3 3/3
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 zuǒ zuǒ zuǒ
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ tsaX › ‹ tsaX › ‹ tsaH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*tsˤa[j]ʔ/ /*tsˤa[j]ʔ/ /*tsˤarʔ-s/
English left (side) assist assist

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 左 左
Reading # 1/2 2/2
No. 18004 18006
Phonetic
component		 左 左
Rime
group		 歌 歌
Rime
subdivision		 1 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 左 佐
Old
Chinese		 /*ʔsaːlʔ/ /*ʔsaːls/

Definitions

左

  1. left (direction)
    左手  ―  zuǒshǒu  ―  left hand
  2. east; areas to the east
  3. (historical) inferior position
  4. unorthodox; wrong
  5. different; divided; inconsistent
  6. (politics) left-wing
  7. A surname​.

Antonyms

  • 右 (yòu, “right”)

Compounds

Japanese

Etymology 1

/hidari/: *[pidari] → [ɸidari] → [çidari].

Kanji

左

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings
Compounds

Etymology 2

Noun

左 ‎(hiragana ひだり, romaji hidari)

  1. (direction) left, the side of the left hand
    • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 229)
      Fidari. ヒダリ (左) 左手, または, 左の方
  2. (politics) a leftist
Antonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Noun

左 ‎(hiragana さ, romaji sa)

  1. the left in vertical writing
  2. the following (one)
    • 1905, Natsume Sōseki, 吾輩は猫である:
      吾輩 (わがはい)はまず彼 (かれ)がどのくらい無学 (むがく)であるかを試 (ため)してみようと思 (おも)って左 (さ)の問答 (もんどう)をして見 (み)た。
      Wagahai wa mazu kare ga dono kurai mugaku de aru ka o tameshite miyō to omotte sa no mondō o shite mita.
      To judge just how uneducated he was, I posed the following question.

References

Korean

Pronunciation

  • Sound: [t͡ɕwɐ]
  • Name: [øn]/[we̞n]

Hanja

左 • ‎(jwa)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul): 좌 (McCune-Reischauer: chwa, Yale: cwa)
  • Name (hangeul): 왼 (revised: oen, McCune-Reischauer: oen, Yale: oyn)
  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Derived terms

  • 좌수사 (左水使, jwasusa)
  • 좌승지 (左承旨, jwaseungji)
  • 좌우 (左右, jwau)
  • 좌우지간 (左右之間, jwaujigan)
  • 좌익 (左翼, jwaik)
  • 좌익수 (左翼手, jwaiksu)
  • 좌의정 (左議政, jwauijeong)
  • 좌지우지 (左之右之, jwajiuji)
  • 좌천 (左遷, jwacheon)
  • 좌측 (左側, jwacheuk)
  • 좌향좌 (左向左, jwahyangjwa)

Vietnamese

Han character

左 (tả, tá, huy)

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

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