滅

Han character

滅 (radical 85 水+10, 13 strokes, cangjie input 水戈竹火 (EIHF), four-corner 3315₀, composition ⿰氵烕)

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 滅
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *med) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 烕 (OC *hmed) – to destroy with water (extinguish, flood).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-miːt (“to extinguish; to shut abruptly; to wink; to blink; to die”). Matisoff compares Burmese မှိတ် (hmit, “(of eyes) to close; (of light) to put out, to switch off”) and possibly Tibetan མེད (med, “to not exist”). Cognate Chinese characters include:

• 烕 (OC *hmed, “to destroy; to cause destruction”)
• 蔑 (OC *meːd, *meːd, “to destroy”)

The Old Chinese *e ~ Proto-Tibeto-Burman *i vowel discrepancy may be explained by a reanalysis of the proto-etymon in Chinese, as derived from 隳 (OC *hmai, “to destroy”) + suffix *-t (Schuessler, 2009), although 隳 is reconstructed in the Baxter-Sagart and Zhengzhang systems as having an *l-like initial. The direct Chinese comparandum of Proto-Tibeto-Burman *mit may be 沒 (OC *mɯːd, “to disappear; to die; to perish in water”) (ibid.).

Pronunciation

Definitions

滅

1. to obliterate; to wipe out; to eradicate; to conquer
2. to be destroyed; to perish; to die
3. to disappear; to vanish
4. to extinguish (a fire); (of light or fire) to go out
5. to turn off (light, lamp, etc.)
6. to alter (handwriting)

Compounds

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. destroy
2. fall; collapse; be destroyed
3. die; perish; disappear

Hanja

滅 • (myeol) (hangeul 멸, revised myeol, McCune–Reischauer myŏl, Yale myel)

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Han character

滅 (diệt, dột, riết)

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