Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

子 (radical 39 子+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 弓木 (ND), four-corner 1740₇, composition ⿻了一)

1. Kangxi radical #39, ⼦ ‎(“child”).

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/子
• 孝

Related characters

• 呆
• 仔

Descendants

• ㄊ

References

• KangXi: page 277, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6930
• Dae Jaweon: page 543, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1006, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5B50

Chinese

Glyph origin

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

Pictogram (象形) – an image of a baby, with a large head and spread arms. The legs are wrapped in a blanket. Compare with 了, where the arms are wrapped. Also compare 呆, of the same origin.

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tsa ~ za ‎(“child, offspring, relatives; to come forth (as child at birth); to love; loving”).

Cognate with 字 (OC *zlɯs, “character; letter”), 慈 (OC *zɯ, “loving; kind”), 滋 (OC *ʔsɯ, “to grow, to breed, to propagate, to bring about, to increase”), 孳 (OC *ʔsɯ, *zɯs, “to breed, to propagate”).

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

子

1. ^†child, offspring
2. ^†son
   • 獨生子 / 独生子  ―  dúshēngzǐ  ―  only son
3. ^†descendant, posterity
4. ^†person
   • 女子  ―  nǚzǐ  ―  female; woman
5. ^†master, teacher
6. ^†A respectful suffix for teachers, usually attached to their surnames.
   • 孔子  ―  Kǒngzǐ  ―  Master Kong (Confucius)
   • 老子  ―  Lǎozǐ  ―  Laocius
7. ^†you
8. Alternative form of 籽 (zǐ, “seed”).
   • 葵花子  ―  kuíhuāzǐ  ―  sunflower seed
9. ^†egg
   • 魚子 / 鱼子  ―  yúzǐ  ―  caviar
10. young; tender; small
11. Prefix attached to nouns, denoting "a part of", "belonging to" or "individual". sub-
    • 子目錄 / 子目录  ―  zǐmùlù  ―  subdirectory
12. (astrology) First earthly branch: rat in the Chinese zodiac, 11th solar month, 11pm to 1am (midnight)
13. Viscount, fourth of five ranks of Chinese aristocracy under the Zhou dynasty.
14. (physics, biology) -on

Synonyms

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

子

1. Suffix for small objects or general diminutive suffix.
   • 瓶子  ―  píngzi  ―  bottle

Synonyms

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

子 (Hokkien)

1. small, round object
   • 算盤子 / 算盘子 [Min Nan]  ―  sǹg-pôaⁿ-jí [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  abacus bead
2. (Xiamen, Quanzhou) Classifier for small objects.
3. (Zhangzhou, Taiwan) Classifier for bananas.

Compounds

⇒ Appendix:Chinese compounds/子

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: し (shi)
• Kan’on: し (shi)
• Tōon: す (su)
• Kun: こ (ko), ね (ne), み (mi)
• Nanori: こ (ko), さね (sane), しげ (shige), しげる (shigeru), たか (taka), ただ (tada), たね (tane), ちか (chika), つぐ (tsugu), とし (toshi), ね (ne), み (mi), みる (miru), やす (yasu)

Compounds

Etymology 1

Old Japanese.^[1] Seen in the Kojiki and the Man'yōshū, two of the oldest examples of written Japanese. Cognate with 蚕 ‎(ko, “silkworm”). Also possibly cognate with 小 ‎(ko, “little”, diminutive prefix).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) こ [kò] (Heiban - [0])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ko̞]

Alternative forms

• 児 (less commonly used)

Noun

子 ‎(hiragana こ, romaji ko)

1. a child

   男の子 — おとこのこ — otoko no ko — male child: a boy

   いい子 — いいこ — ii ko — good boy; good girl

2. (figuratively) a girl, especially a dear or desired one (compare use of English baby, babe)
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 7, poem 1266); text here

     大舟乎 荒海尓榜出 八船多氣 吾見之兒等之 目見者知之母

     大船を 荒海に漕ぎ出で や船たけ 我が見し子らが まみはしるしも

     おほぶねを あるみにこぎで やふねたけ わがみしこらが まみはしるしも

     Ōbune o / arumi ni kogi de / ya fune take / waga mishi kora ga / mami wa shirushi mo

     Rowing the big boat into the rough seas, putting our backs into it, the looks of those girls I saw are clear [in my mind]}}

3. a smaller or younger version of a bigger object

   きのこ — kinoko — a "tree's child / little one": a mushroom

   竹の子 — たけのこ — takenoko — a "bamboo's child / little one": a bamboo shoot

Derived terms

Prefix

子 ‎(hiragana こ, romaji ko-)

1. an object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another object

   子会社 こがいしゃ — kogaisha — a subsidiary

   子犬 — こいぬ — koinu — a puppy

Derived terms

Suffix

子 ‎(hiragana こ, romaji -ko)

1. suffix used in female given names, such as 智子 (ともこ, ​Tomoko), 英子 (えいこ, ​Eiko), 秀子 (ひでこ, ​Hideko), 美奈子 (みなこ, ​Minako)
2. (rare) suffix used in male given names
3. an object having a particular state or property (sometimes diminutive)

   振子 — ふりこ — furiko — an object that swings: a pendulum

4. roe (only when preceded by a fish name, or fish-related prefix)

   明太子 — めんたいこ — mentaiko — pollock roe

   飛子 — とびこ — tobiko — flying fish roe

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle Chinese 子 ‎(tsiX). Compare modern Mandarin 子 ‎(zǐ).

The goon reading of shi is likely the original borrowing. The tōon reading su appears later, and only shows up in certain set terms borrowed from Chinese, where it seems to serve as a kind of nominalizing suffix.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) し​ [shíꜜ] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕi]
• On'yomi
• IPA^(key): [sɯᵝ] (second reading less common, only used in word-final position)

Affix

子 ‎(hiragana し, romaji shi) (alternative reading hiragana す, romaji su)

1. a child
2. an object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another object
3. an object having a particular state or property (sometimes diminutive)

   中性子 — ちゅうせいし — chūseishi — a neutral small thing: a neutron

   椅子 — いす — isu — literally, a chair small thing: a chair

Usage notes

• This affix is never used in isolation. It is only used in on'yomi compounds.
• In some kanji compounds, 子 is part of the word but does not carry much meaning in Japanese, as in 椅子 ‎(isu, “chair”). Possibly because of this erosion of meaning, spelling out 子 in some compounds has become optional, as in 椰子 vs. 椰 ‎(yashi, “a palm tree”), or 柚子 vs. 柚 ‎(yuzu, “an aromatic citron”).
• In some compounds, the shi or su reading becomes voiced as ji or zu due to rendaku.

Derived terms

References

1. ↑ 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
3. ↑ 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

子 • ‎(ja)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 자 (McCune-Reischauer: cha)

• Name (hangeul): 아들()

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

Vietnamese

Han character

子 (tử, tú, tí, tở, bình, huỳnh)

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

References

• Nom Foundation