Translingual

Han character

筆 (radical 118 竹+6, 12 strokes, cangjie input 竹中手 (HLQ), four-corner 8850₇, composition ⿱⺮聿)

References

• KangXi: page 882, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25987
• Dae Jaweon: page 1310, character 27
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 2970, character 9
• Unihan data for U+7B46

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *prud) : semantic 竹 ‎(“bamboo”) + phonetic 聿 ‎(OC *b·lud, “writing brush”) – a hand holding a brush 聿. The bamboo (竹) refers to the material of traditional Chinese brushes.

Etymology

Benedict (1972) surmises that this might be a loan from Austro-Tai into Sino-Tibetan; cf. Proto-Austronesian *bulut ‎(“hairy filaments of certain plants, husk”) (Cebuano bulut).

Pronunciation

Definitions

筆

1. writing brush
2. pen; pencil
   • 你有筆嗎，記一下這個電話號碼。 [MSC, trad.]
     你有笔吗，记一下这个电话号码。 [MSC, simp.]

     Nǐ yǒu bǐ ma, jì yīxià zhè ge diànhuà hàomǎ. [Pinyin]

     Do you have a pen to write this phone number?

3. stroke (of Chinese characters)
   • 你這個字寫錯了，這裡少了一筆。 [MSC, trad.]
     你这个字写错了，这里少了一笔。 [MSC, simp.]

     Nǐ zhè ge zì xiě cuò le, zhèlǐ shào le yī bǐ. [Pinyin]

     The character you have miswritten lacks one stroke here.

4. ^† to write; to compose
5. Classifier for sums of money, deals.  ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

Compounds

Descendants

Others

• → Buryat: ᠪᠢᠷ ‎(ᠪᠢᠷ) / биирэ ‎(biire)
• → Khmer: ពិត ‎(pĭt, “small Chinese-style writing brush”)
• → Korean: 붓 (but, “writing brush”)
• → Manchu: ᡶᡳ ‎(fi, “brush”), ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ ‎(bithe, “book”), ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝᠰᡳ ‎(bithesi, “scribe”)
  • → Chinese: 筆帖式／笔帖式 (“scribe during the Qing Dynasty”)
• → Mongolian: ᠪᠢᠷ ‎(bir) / бийр ‎(bijr)
• → Tibetan: པིར ‎(pir, “writing brush, pen”)
• → Turkic:
  • Old Turkic: 𐰋𐰃𐱅𐰃 ‎(biti-, “to write”), 𐰋𐰃𐱅𐰏 ‎(bitig, “inscription, book”)
  • → Mongolian: ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠬᠦ ‎(bičikü) / бичих ‎(bičih), ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ ‎(bičig) / бичиг ‎(bičig)

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: ひち (hichi) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’on: ひつ (hitsu)
• Kun: ふで (fude), ふんで (funde) (non-Jōyō reading), ふみて (fumite) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Nanori: くし (kushi)

Compounds

Etymology 1

Shift in pronunciation from funde below.^[1] Now the most common pronunciation in modern Japanese.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) ふで [fùdé] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯᵝde̞]

Noun

筆 ‎(hiragana ふで, romaji fude)

1. a writing brush, a painting brush, a pen
2. writing:
   1. the act of writing
   2. something written
   3. handwriting, how someone writes

Usage notes

The pen sense is more commonly expressed using the English-derived term ペン ‎(pen).

Etymology 2

Shift in pronunciation from fumite below. Listed with this reading in the 観智院 (Kanchi-in) edition of the 11th- or 12th-century 類聚名義抄 (Ruiju Myōgishō) dictionary.^[1]

Superseded by the fude reading above in modern Japanese.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̃ᵝnde̞]

Noun

筆 ‎(hiragana ふんで, romaji funde)

1. (obsolete) same as for fude above: brush; pen; writing

Etymology 3

Compound of 文 ‎(fumi, “writing”) +‎ 手 ‎(te, “hand”). Appears with this reading in the Man'yōshū, circa 759.

Superseded by the fude reading above in modern Japanese.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯᵝmite̞]

Noun

筆 ‎(hiragana ふみて, romaji fumite)

1. (obsolete) same as for fude above: brush; pen; writing

Etymology 4

/pitu/ → /fitu/ → /hitu/

From Middle Chinese 筆 ‎( pit , “writing brush”). Compare modern Hakka and Min Nan pit, Mandarin bǐ.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• (Tokyo) ひつ​ [hìtsúꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [çit͡sɯᵝ]

Noun

筆 ‎(hiragana ひつ, romaji hitsu)

1. a brush, a pen, a writing or drawing implement
2. the mark made by a brush or pen
3. writing or drawing with a brush or pen
4. an allotment of land, such as for agriculture or housing (from the way that a description of the land and the owner would be written down in the survey register)

References

1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

Korean

Hanja

筆 • ‎(pil) (hangeul 필, McCune-Reischauer p'il, Yale phil)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

筆 (bút)

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