Translingual

Han character

昔 (radical 72 日+4, 8 strokes, cangjie input 廿日 (TA), four-corner 4460₁, composition ⿱龷日)

Derived characters

• 借 惜 醋 錯 耤 猎

References

• KangXi: page 492, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13816
• Dae Jaweon: page 855, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1488, character 11
• Unihan data for U+6614

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 昔
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Oracle bone form: Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 𡿧 ‎(“disaster; floods”) + 日 ‎(“sun”) – the flood submerging the sun; the former times.

Shuowen: Two pieces of flesh (仌) left to dry in the sun (日). Original form of 腊 (OC *sjaːɡ).

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

昔

1. ^†dried meat
2. former times; the past
3. ^†yesterday
4. ^†sunset; dusk
5. ^†Alternative form of 夕 (xī, “evening; night”).
6. A surname​.

Compounds

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

昔

1. ^†coarse; rough
2. ^†Alternative form of 錯／错 (cuò, “to criss-cross”).
3. ^†Alternative form of 措 (cuò, “to use; to carry out”).

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: しゃく (shaku)
• Kan’on: せき (seki)
• Kun: むかし (mukashi)

Etymology

From Old Japanese. The muka portion derives from the 未然形 ‎(mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of verb 向く ‎(muku, “to face opposite to something”), implying “that which stands opposite from the present”. The shi portion is suffix し ‎(shi) indicating direction, also found in words 縦し ‎(tatashi, “the standing or vertical direction”), 横し ‎(yokoshi, “the sideways or horizontal direction”). This appears to be a somewhat rare alternative form, more commonly encountered as さ ‎(sa), and may be cognate with the nominalizing adjective ending さ ‎(sa).^[1]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) むかし [mùkáshí] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [mɯᵝka̠ɕi]

Adverb

昔 ‎(hiragana むかし, romaji mukashi)

1. once (in the indeterminate past)

   昔 (むかし)見 (み)た映画 (えいが)

   mukashi mita eiga

   a movie I once saw

Noun

昔 ‎(hiragana むかし, romaji mukashi)

1. the past, old times
   • 970-999, Utsubo Monogatari (Toshikage)^[3]

     むかし、式部大輔、左大弁かけて清原の王ありけり。

   昔と今 — past and the present

   昔の自分 — my past self

   昔からの友達 — a longtime friend ("a friend since old times")

   昔に戻る — to return to the past

2. ancient

   昔の人 — ancient people

   もう昔の話だ。— That's ancient history.

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. ↑ Kōno, Tama (c. 970–999) Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 10: Utsubo Monogatari 1 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 978-4-00-060010-1, published 1959.

Korean

Hanja

昔 • ‎(seok, chak) (hangeul 석, 착, revised seok, chak, McCune-Reischauer sŏk, ch'ak, Yale sek, chak)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

• Hán Việt: tích, tếch, thách, tách

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