字

Han character

字 (radical 39, 子+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 十弓木 (JND), four-corner 3040₇, composition ⿱宀子)

References

• KangXi: page 277, character 18
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6942
• Dae Jaweon: page 545, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1010, character 2
• Unihan data for U+5B57

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 字
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *zlɯs) : semantic 宀 (“roof”) + phonetic 子 (OC *ʔslɯʔ, “child”).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tsa ~ za (“child; to give birth; to take care; to be kind”). Related to:

• 子 (OC *ʔslɯʔ, “child, son”) (also its phonetic component)
• 慈 (OC *zɯ, “to be kind, loving”)
• 滋 (OC *ʔsɯ, “to nourish, to grow”)
• 詞 (OC *ljɯ, “word, term”)
• 辭 (OC *ljɯ, “word, from testimony”)

Original sense (1): “to become pregnant, to give birth to, to nurture, to love” has essentially become obsolete. The sense (2) “letter, character” is either from a different root or a derivation from the sense “to produce, to generate”.

Cognate with Tibetan ཚ་བོ (tsha bo, “nephew”), Tibetan ཚ་རུས (tsha rus, “descendant”), Tibetan བཙའ (btsa', “to give birth to; to guard”), Tibetan མཛའ (mdza', “kind, peaceful, friendly”) (Quan, 1996).

Pronunciation

Definitions

字

1. ^† to give birth to; to deliver a baby; to bring into the world
2. ^† to be pregnant; to be carrying a baby
3. ^† (historical, of a girl) to be betrothed; to be allowed to marry

   待字閨中 / 待字闺中  ―  dàizìguīzhōng  ―  to stay in the boudoir waiting to be betrothed

4. ^† to bring up; to raise; to rear (a child)
5. ^† to love; to cherish; to care very much for
6. ^† to educate; to teach; to instruct
7. ^† to govern; to administer
8. Chinese character; hanzi (Classifier: 個／个; 隻／只 c)

   這個字怎麼唸？ / 这个字怎么念？  ―  Zhège zì zěnme niàn?  ―  How do you read this character?

9. word; term; wording; diction

   這字拼錯了。 / 这字拼错了。  ―  Zhè zì pīn cuò le.  ―  This word is wrongly spelt; you've left out a letter.

10. (computing) word
11. handwriting; writing

    他的字很差。  ―  Tā de zì hěn chà.  ―  His handwriting is very bad.

12. (historical) courtesy name; Chinese-style name (a name traditionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20 and females at the age of 15)
13. (historical) to style; to give someone a courtesy name
14. letter; symbol; character

    字母  ―  zìmǔ  ―  letter

    字串  ―  zìchuàn  ―  character string

15. (calligraphy) style of handwriting; printing type
16. (calligraphy) (a calligrapher's) calligraphy work
17. written letter; message; correspondence
18. receipt; contract; slip
19. pronunciation of a character; pronunciation
20. (Cantonese, Min, Malaysia, Singapore) five minutes (derived from the locations of 1 to 12 on a clock face) (Classifier: 個／个 m c)

    三個字 / 三个字 [Cantonese]  ―  saam¹ go³ zi⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  fifteen minutes [i.e. when the minute hand points to 3]

    七點兩字 / 七点两字 [Min Nan]  ―  chhit tiám nn̄g jī [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  ten past seven

    • 而家係一點十一個字。 [Guangzhou Cantonese, trad.]
      而家系一点十一个字。 [Guangzhou Cantonese, simp.]

      Ji⁴ gaa¹ hai⁶ jat¹ dim² sap⁶ jat¹ go³ zi⁶. [Jyutping]

      It's five to two now. (Literally: It's one o'clock [and] eleven five-minutes.)

    • 爭三個字到六點 [Guangzhou Cantonese, trad.]
      争三个字到六点 [Guangzhou Cantonese, simp.]

      zaang¹ saam¹ go³ zi⁶ dou³ luk⁶ dim² [Jyutping]

      a quarter to six (Literally: Missing three five-minutes to six o'clock)

21. A surname​.

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• Proto-Tai: *ɟɤ:ᴮ (“name”)
  • Lao: ຊື່ (sư̄, “name”)
  • Thai: ชื่อ (chʉ̂ʉ, “name”)
• Vietnamese: chữ (“script; letter; writing; word”)

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle Chinese 字 with the southern pronunciation (kango, Go-on).

Etymology 2

Shortened form of あざな azana "a section of a village" of ancient Japanese origin (wago).

Etymology 3

Of ancient Japanese origin (wago).

References

Hanja

字 (eumhun 글자 자 (geulja ja))

1. letter, character

Han character

字 (chữ, tự, tợ)

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

References

• Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển, Hà Nội, 1942
• Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
• Vũ Văn Kính: Đại Tự Điển Chữ Nôm, NXB Văn Nghệ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999