咫

咫 U+54AB, 咫 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-54AB ← 咪 [U+54AA] CJK Unified Ideographs 咬 → [U+54AC]

Translingual

Han character

咫 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 尸人口金 (SORC), four-corner 7680₈, composition ⿺尺只)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 186, character 15
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3542
• Dae Jaweon: page 405, character 36
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 624, character 1
• Unihan data for U+54AB

Chinese

trad.		咫
simp. #		咫
alternative forms		𣥉 𦐖 𰭠

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 咫
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

Characters in the same phonetic series (只) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
只	*klje, *kljeʔ
胑	*klje
疻	*klje, *klji
軹	*kljeʔ
咫	*kljeʔ
枳	*kljeʔ, *kleʔ
抧	*kljeʔ
伿	*kljes, *les
齞	*ŋleːnʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *kljeʔ): semantic 尺 (“ruler; measuring stick”) + phonetic 只 (OC *klje, *kljeʔ)

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): zhǐ (zhi³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄓˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): zi²
• Eastern Min (BUC): cī
• Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): zi³
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): chí

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: zhǐ
    • Zhuyin: ㄓˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: jhǐh
    • Wade–Giles: chih³
    • Yale: jř
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: jyy
    • Palladius: чжи (čži)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʈ͡ʂʐ̩²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: zi²
    • Yale: jí
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dzi²
    • Guangdong Romanization: ji²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡siː³⁵/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: cī
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡si³³/
• Puxian Min
  • (Putian)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: zi³
    • Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: cî
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡si⁴⁵³/
  • (Xianyou)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: zi³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡si³³²/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, General Taiwanese, Xiamen, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chí
    • Tâi-lô: tsí
    • Phofsit Daibuun: cie
    • IPA (Taipei, Xiamen, Zhangzhou): /t͡si⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡si⁴¹/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡si⁵⁵⁴/

---

• Middle Chinese: tsyeX

Rime
Character	咫
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	章 (23)
Final (韻)	支 (11)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	諸氏切
Baxter	tsyeX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/t͡ɕiᴇX/
Pan Wuyun	/t͡ɕiɛX/
Shao Rongfen	/t͡ɕjɛX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ciə̆X/
Li Rong	/t͡ɕieX/
Wang Li	/t͡ɕǐeX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/t͡ɕie̯X/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	zhǐ
Expected Cantonese Reflex	zi2

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*keʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*kljeʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	咫
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	zhǐ
Middle Chinese	‹ tsyeX ›
Old Chinese	/*keʔ/
English	foot (8 inches)
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	咫
Reading #	1/1
No.	17309
Phonetic component	只
Rime group	支
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	紙
Old Chinese	/*kljeʔ/

Definitions

咫

1. unit of measurement during the Zhou dynasty, equal to eight cun/tsun (寸)

   • 楛矢貫之，石砮其長尺有咫。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     楛矢贯之，石砮其长尺有咫。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Guoyu, circa 4^th century BCE

     Hù shǐ guàn zhī, shí nú qí cháng chǐ yǒu zhǐ. [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 對曰：「天威不違顏咫尺，小白，余敢貪天子之命無下拜？ [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     对曰：「天威不违颜咫尺，小白，余敢贪天子之命无下拜？ [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Commentary of Zuo, c. 4^th century BCE

     Duì yuē: “Tiānwēi bù wéi yán zhǐchǐ, xiǎobái, yú gǎn tān tiānzǐ zhī mìng wú xiàbài? [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) few; little

   Synonym: 少

   • 王曰：「是知天咫，安知民則？是言誕也。」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     王曰：「是知天咫，安知民则？是言诞也。」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Guoyu, circa 4^th century BCE

     Wáng yuē: “Shì zhī tiān zhǐ, ān zhī mín zé? Shì yán dàn yě.” [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

3. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) short

   Synonym: 短 (duǎn)

   • 北首燕路，而後遣辯士奉咫尺之書，暴其所長於燕，燕必不敢不聽從。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     北首燕路，而后遣辩士奉咫尺之书，暴其所长于燕，燕必不敢不听从。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Běi shǒu yàn lù, ér hòu qiǎn biàn shì fèng zhǐchǐ zhī shū, bào qí suǒ cháng yú yàn, yàn bì bùgǎn bù tīngcóng. [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Compounds

• 咫尺 (zhǐchǐ)
• 咫尺之地
• 咫尺千里
• 咫尺天涯
• 咫尺山河
• 咫尺萬里
• 咫聞 / 咫闻
• 咫角驂駒 / 咫角骖驹
• 天涯咫尺
• 相去咫尺
• 近在咫尺 (jìnzàizhǐchǐ)

References

• The template Template:R:nan-hbl:Campbell does not use the parameter(s):

  1=51

  Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.William Campbell (1913), A dictionary of the Amoy vernacular spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-Chiu, Chiang-Chiu and Formosa (in Hokkien), 8th edition, Tainan: Taiwan Church Press, published 1961, →OCLC.
• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “咫”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 309.
• “咫”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–