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Definition 2024

青

青

See also: 靑

Translingual

Stroke order
Japanese stroke order

Han character

青 (radical 174 靑+0, 8 strokes, cangjie input 手一月 (QMB), four-corner 50227, composition ⿱龶月)

Descendants

See also

References

  • KangXi: not present, would follow page 1381, character 19
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42564
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1893, character 1
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 4046, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+9752

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 青
alt. forms 靑
𤯞

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 青
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (生) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
猜 *sʰlɯː
輤 *sʰleːns
綪 *sʰleːns, *ʔsreːŋ
倩 *sʰleːns, *sʰleŋs
棈 *sʰleːns
蒨 *sʰeːns
篟 *sʰeːns
生 *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs
牲 *sreŋ
笙 *sreŋ
甥 *sreŋ
鉎 *sreŋ, *sleːŋ
珄 *sreŋ
鼪 *sreŋ, *sreŋs
猩 *sreŋ, *seːŋ
狌 *sreŋ
眚 *sreŋʔ
貹 *sreŋs
崝 *zreːŋ
精 *ʔsleŋ, *ʔsleŋs
菁 *ʔsleŋ
鶄 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleːŋ
蜻 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleːŋ
鼱 *ʔsleŋ
婧 *ʔsleŋ, *zleŋs, *zleŋʔ
睛 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleŋʔ
箐 *ʔsleŋ
聙 *ʔsleŋ
旌 *ʔsleŋ
清 *sʰleŋ
圊 *sʰleŋ
請 *sʰleŋʔ, *zleŋs, *zleŋ
凊 *sʰleŋs
䝼 *zleŋs, *zleŋ
靚 *zleŋs
情 *zleŋ
晴 *zleŋ
夝 *zleŋ
靜 *zleŋʔ
靖 *zleŋʔ
睲 *seŋʔ, *seːŋs
惺 *seŋʔ, *seːŋ
性 *sleŋs
姓 *sleŋs
靗 *l̥ʰeŋs
鯖 *ʔljeŋ, *sʰleːŋ
青 *sʰleːŋ
靘 *sʰleːŋ, *sʰleːŋs
掅 *sʰleːŋs
胜 *sleːŋ
曐 *sleːŋ
星 *sleːŋ
鮏 *sleːŋ
腥 *seːŋ, *seːŋs
鯹 *seːŋ
醒 *seːŋ, *seːŋʔ, *seːŋs
篂 *seːŋ

Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 生 ‎(“growth of plants”) + 丹 ‎(“cinnabar”). Cinnabar was used for dyeing, and by extension, came to imply “color” in general, giving the combined meaning “color of growing plants” → “blue-green”.

Top component is cognate to 生, but bottom component now resembles the unrelated 月 (“moon”).

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 青
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 清 (14)
Final (韻) 青 (125)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) IV
Fanqie 倉經切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /t͡sʰeŋ/
Pan
Wuyun		 /t͡sʰeŋ/
Shao
Rongfen		 /t͡sʰɛŋ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /t͡sʰɛjŋ/
Li
Rong		 /t͡sʰeŋ/
Wang
Li		 /t͡sʰieŋ/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /t͡sʰieŋ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 qīng
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 青
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 qīng
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ tsheng ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[s.r̥]ˤeŋ/
English green or blue

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 青
Reading # 1/1
No. 11362
Phonetic
component		 生
Rime
group		 耕
Rime
subdivision		 0
Corresponding
MC rime		 靑
Old
Chinese		 /*sʰleːŋ/
Notes 說文從生丹，戴桐王筠皆雲從丹生聲

Definitions

青

  1. blue-green; blue (of sky, stone etc.); green (of grass, plants, mountain etc.)
  2. blue-green-coloured items
  3. black (of hair, cloth, silk thread etc.)
  4. luxuriant; lush; exuberant
  5. young; adolescent
  6. east
  7. spring
  8. green grass
  9. ripening crops
  10. Short for 青海 (Qīnghǎi, “Qinghai Province”).
  11. A surname​.

Usage notes

The meaning for “blue” and “black” is more commonly used in Classical Chinese, while in modern Chinese, the meaning for “green” is more common. For example, 青山綠水 (“hill and water green in colour”), 青蘋果 (“green apple”). However, there are still some expressions for the meaning of blue, e.g. 青天 (“blue sky”), 青出於藍 (“blue comes from indigo; someone performing better than their teacher”)

In Cantonese the use of 青 to mean “black” is still used in circumstances where to use 黑 (hak1) would be inauspicious, as it is a near-homophone of 乞 (hat1, “beggar”). For example, 黑衣 (hak1 ji1) used to describe clothing would be a near-homophone of both beggar and a beggar's garment.

See also

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

青

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

/sawo/ (uncertain, may be compound as opposed to root) → /awo/ → /ao/

From Old Japanese.

Appears as the latter part in older compounds with an -s- infix or prefix. It is unclear if this leading /s/ is indicative of an earlier form (sawo), or if this was an addition for euphony to avoid vowel clusters, or for other reasons. This /s/ is also seen in 雨 ‎(ame, becoming same in old compounds) and 稲 ‎(ine, becoming shine in old compounds).

Given that this /s/ only ever appears interstitially, and given the semantics, this /s/ may be cognate with Korean interfix -ᄉ- ‎(-s-) used to mark possession, much like English 's.

Pronunciation

Noun

青 ‎(hiragana あお, romaji ao, historical hiragana あを)

  1. blue
  2. the black, bluish color of a horse's hair; also, such a horse
    • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 39)[2]
      Auo. アヲ (青) 馬の毛色で, 全体に黒くて青みがあり, 両耳の内側に多少白いところのあるもの. この部分の毛も他の部分と同じようにすっかり黒い時には, Curo(黒)と呼ばれる.
  3. green (traffic-light green is referred to as ao, as are plant leaves.)
Derived terms
See also
Colors in Japanese · 色 (いろ) ‎(iro) (layout · text)
     赤 (あか) ‎(aka)      緑 (みどり) ‎(midori)      黄色 (きいろ) ‎(kiiro)      クリーム色 (いろ) ‎(kurīmuiro)      白 (しろ) ‎(shiro)
     深紅 (しんく) ‎(shinku),
クリムゾン ‎(kurimuzon),
紅色 (べにいろ) ‎(beniiro),
紅色 (くれないいろ) ‎(kurenaiiro) 		     マゼンタ ‎(mazenta)      ?      黄緑 (きみどり) ‎(kimidori)      ピンク ‎(pinku),
桃色 (ももいろ) ‎(momoiro)
     ?      青 (あお) ‎(ao)      オレンジ ‎(orenji), 橙色 (だいだいいろ) ‎(daidaiiro)      灰色 (はいいろ) ‎(haiiro),
鼠色 (ねずみいろ) ‎(nezumiiro) 		     ?
     黒 (くろ) ‎(kuro)      紫 (むらさき) ‎(murasaki)      茶色 (ちゃいろ) ‎(chairo),
褐色 (かっしょく) ‎(kasshoku) 		     水色 (みずいろ) ‎(mizuiro)      シアン ‎(shian)

Etymology 2

Unknown. The reading might be an obscure term from Old Japanese or dialect. The use of the character 青 arises from its 宋音 ‎(sōon, “Song-dynasty pronunciation”).[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

青 ‎(hiragana しい, romaji shī)

  1. (rare, archaic, mythology) a beast that looks like a weasel, and is said to have lived in present-day Fukuoka and Yamaguchi prefectures
  2. (rare, archaic, mythology) a beast that looks like a wolf, and is said to have appeared around Mount Yoshino

References

  1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. ↑ Doi, Tadao (1603–1604) Hōyaku Nippo Jisho (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 978-4-00-080021-1, published 1980.
  3. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan

Korean

Hanja

青 • ‎(cheong)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul): 청 (revised: cheong, McCune-Reischauer: ch'ŏng, Yale: cheng)
  1. blue; green

Vietnamese

Han character

青 (thanh, thênh, xanh)

  1. green
  2. blue

References

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