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Definition 2024

首

首

Translingual

Stroke order
Stroke order

Han character

首 (radical 185 首+0, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿竹月山 (THBU), four-corner 80601, composition ⿱丷𦣻)

  1. Kangxi radical #185, ⾸ ‎(“head”).

Derived terms

  • Index:Chinese radical/首
  • 道

See also

References

  • KangXi: page 1427, character 32
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44489
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1953, character 27
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4500, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+9996

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 首
alt. forms 𩠐

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 首
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (首) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
道 *l'uːʔ
導 *duːs
首 *hljuʔ, *hljus

Simplified from 𩠐 (巛 → 丷). Originally Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *hljuʔ, *hljus) : 巛 + 𦣻.

Etymology

Sino-Tibetan; cognate with Mizo lu ‎(“head”). This word has also been compared with Proto-Austronesian *quluh ‎(“head”) (Malay hulu) and Proto-Tai *klawᶜ ~ krawᶜ ‎(“head; hair knot”) (Thai เกล้า ‎(glâo, “hair; head”)), and was used by Sagart to support his Sino-Austronesian hypothesis. Compare 道 (OC *l'uːʔ, “path, road”) (with the same phonetic component) and its relationship with Proto-Hmong-Mien *kləuX ‎(“road, way”).

This word was replaced by 頭 (OC *doː, “head”) by the Warring States period, possibly due to early homophony with 手 (OC *hnjɯwʔ, “hand”).

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 首 首
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Initial (聲) 書 (26) 書 (26)
Final (韻) 尤 (136) 尤 (136)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) III III
Fanqie 書九切 舒救切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /ɕɨuX/ /ɕɨuH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /ɕiuX/ /ɕiuH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /ɕiəuX/ /ɕiəuH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /ɕuwX/ /ɕuwH/
Li
Rong		 /ɕiuX/ /ɕiuH/
Wang
Li		 /ɕĭəuX/ /ɕĭəuH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /ɕi̯ə̯uX/ /ɕi̯ə̯uH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 shǒu shòu
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 首 首
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 shǒu shǒu
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ syuwX › ‹ syuwH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*l̥uʔ/ /*l̥uʔ-s/
English head turn the head towards

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 首 首
Reading # 1/2 2/2
No. 11671 11672
Phonetic
component		 首 首
Rime
group		 幽 幽
Rime
subdivision		 1 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 首 狩
Old
Chinese		 /*hljuʔ/ /*hljus/

Definitions

首

  1. head
  2. chief, leader
  3. start, beginning
  4. first; best; highest
  5. poem
  6. to face (a direction)
  7. side, direction
  8. to report someone to the authorities
  9. Classifier for songs and poems.  ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

首

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. neck
  2. counter for songs and poems
  3. beginning, first

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
首
くび
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

Noun

首 ‎(hiragana くび, romaji kubi)

  1. neck (part of the body connecting head and torso)
  2. the neck and head as a whole
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Noun

首 ‎(hiragana おびと, romaji obito)

  1. (archaic) one who rules or commands a group of people; a chief

Etymology 3

kamipe > kampe > kaube > koːbe. Compound of either 上 ‎(kami, “upper”) or 髪 ‎(kami, “hair”) with the suffix 方 ‎(he, “location”).

Noun

首 ‎(hiragana こうべ, romaji kōbe, historical hiragana かうべ)

  1. (part of the body) head

Etymology 4

Counter

首 ‎(hiragana しゅ, romaji -shu)

  1. poems and songs

See also

References

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

Korean

Hanja

首 • ‎(su)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul): 수 (McCune-Reischauer: su, Yale: swu)
  • Name (hangeul): 머리 (revised: meori, McCune-Reischauer: mŏri)
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Vietnamese

Han character

首 (thủ, thú)

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

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