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Definition 2024

電

電

See also: 电

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

電 (radical 173 雨+5, 13 strokes, cangjie input 一月田山 (MBWU), four-corner 10716, composition ⿱⻗电)

References

  • KangXi: page 1373, character 5
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42253
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1882, character 8
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 4060, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+96FB

Chinese

trad. 電
simp. 电

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (申) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
電 *l'iːns
胂 *l̥ʰin, *hlin
申 *hlin
伸 *hlin
呻 *hlin
紳 *hlin
眒 *hlin, *hlins
柛 *hlin
訷 *hlin
抻 *hlins
神 *hlin
朄 *lins

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *l'iːns) : semantic 雨 ‎(“rain”) + phonetic 电 ‎(OC *hlin).

The 电 in this character is a variant/corruption of 申 (OC *hlin), used phonetically.

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 電
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 定 (7)
Final (韻) 先 (85)
Tone (調) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) IV
Fanqie 堂練切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /denH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /denH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /dɛnH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /dɛnH/
Li
Rong		 /denH/
Wang
Li		 /dienH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /dʱienH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 diàn
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 電
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 diàn
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ denH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*lˤi[n]-s/
English lightning

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 電
Reading # 1/1
No. 11233
Phonetic
component		 申
Rime
group		 眞
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 電
Old
Chinese		 /*l'iːns/

Definitions

電

  1. electricity
  2. electric; electrical
  3. lightning
  4. (colloquial) romantic attraction; chemistry
  5. Short for 電話／电话 (diànhuà, “telephone; phone call”).
  6. Short for 電報／电报 (diànbào, “telegram”).
  7. Short for 電臺／电台 (diàntái, “broadcasting station; radio station”).
  8. to get an electric shock; to be electrocuted
  9. to make a telephone call
  10. to send a telegram
  11. fast; speedy

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

電

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. lightning
  2. electricity

Readings

Compounds

Etymology

Kanji in this term
電
いなずま
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Compound of いな ‎(ina, “rice plant”) +‎ つま ‎(tsuma, “spouse”). From an old folk belief that lightning joined with the rice plant to bring it to seed. The tsuma changes to zuma as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

Noun

電 ‎(hiragana いなずま, romaji inazuma, historical hiragana いなづま)

  1. lightning

Synonyms

References

  1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. ↑ 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

電 • ‎(jeon) (hangeul 전)

  1. electricity

Vietnamese

Han character

電 (điện)

  1. electricity

Compounds

References

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