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士

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: 土 and ±
士 U+58EB, 士
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-58EB
← 壪
[U+58EA] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 壬 →
[U+58EC]
Thumb
⼠ U+2F20, ⼠
KANGXI RADICAL SCHOLAR
← ⼟
[U+2F1F] 		Kangxi Radicals ⼡ →
[U+2F21]

Translingual

More information Stroke order ...

Han character

See images of
Radical 33 士

士 (Kangxi radical 33, 士+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 十一 (JM), four-corner 40100, composition ⿱十一)

  1. Kangxi radical #33, ⼠.
  2. Shuowen Jiezi radical №9

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 242, character 38
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5638
  • Dae Jaweon: page 482, character 38
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 416, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+58EB
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Chinese

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 士, Shang ...
Characters in the same phonetic series (士) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
More information Old Chinese ...

Pictogram (象形) – a war axe. Later, it took the meaning of "soldier" and eventually "officer, intellectual". Partly related to 王 since in at least two characters it should represent a ritual axe, perhaps made of jade: in fact, it is related to 圭 and 金 despite their appearance.

Etymology 1

More information simp. and trad., alternative forms ...
"bachelor, man, male"
  • Reminiscent of Austroasiatic synonyms like Old Khmer si (“male”) or MK words for "man, male" like *ʔŋsiil, *ensir, *kəsəy on the Malay Peninsula; Schuessler (2007) noted that foreign *-r sometimes left traces in OC initial complex. These relations, if, valid, would keep 士1 "bachelor, man, male" distinct from 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar".
"take or give an office, serve", "servant", "retainer", "officer", "scholar"
  • Schuessler (2007) noted that one could naturally assume the semantic development "male > man > servant > to serve" in order to posit that 士1 "bachelor, man, male" is the same word as 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar". Yet, the exopassive derivation 事 (OC *ʔsrɯs, *zrɯs) "assignment, affair, thing" and Tibeto-Burman counterparts demonstrated no association with "man, maleness"; & "male" hardly derives from "to serve".
  • Therefore, Schuessler derived these forms from 理 (OC *rɯʔ) "envoy, jail official, matchmaker" & proposed ultimate Austroasiatic origins. In terms of phonology, MC *dʐ- normally does not occur with *l- and *ʂ in an ST word-family, apparently confirming a non-ST provenance; however, MC *dʐ- here could go back to OC *s-r- (unlike MC *ʂ-, which is from OC *sr)
  • Subsequenly, Schuessler posited either relation to Austroasiatic or OC loan into Tibeto-Burman as Proto-Tibeto-Burman *ʔ-dzəj (“send on an errant”) (Matisoff, 2003), whence Burmese စာ (ca, “thing”) & Tibetan རྫས (rdzas, “thing, matter, object”) (Gong, 1999). Even so, Tibeto-Burman cognates of this etymon and 所 (suǒ) are difficult to distinguish.

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data
More information Variety, Location ...
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

士

  1. (obsolete) unmarried male; bachelor
  2. (obsolete, honorific) man
  3. (obsolete) general; high-ranking military officer
  4. (obsolete) soldier; noncommissioned officer
    士兵  ―  shìbīng  ―  soldier
  5. (historical) scholar-official (civil servant appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance)
  6. (historical) self-appellation used by scholar-officials in ancient China, when addressing the emperor: I; subject
  7. (historical) a social stratum in ancient China
  8. scholar; academic; intellectual; intelligentsia
    博士  ―  bóshì  ―  doctor; doctoral degree
    院士  ―  yuànshì  ―  academician
    居士  ―  jūshì  ―  lay Buddhist or retired scholar
  9. (honorific, obsolete) suffix for a virtuous, knowledgeable or skilled person: commendable person
    女士  ―  nǚshì  ―  Lady
    護士／护士  ―  hùshì  ―  nurse
    人士  ―  rénshì  ―  public figure
    助產士／助产士  ―  zhùchǎnshì  ―  midwife
  10. (xiangqi) adviser; guard; minister: 🩨 (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
  11. (obsolete) alternative form of 仕 (shì, “to be an official”)
  12. a surname
Usage notes
  • 士 is commonly used to render the /s/ sound (not followed by a vowel) in foreign names, e.g. 威士忌 (wēishìjì, “whiskey”), 巴士 (bāshì, “bus”), which is from Cantonese usage.
Coordinate terms

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (士):
  • → Japanese: 士(し) (shi)
  • → Korean: 사(士) (sa)
  • → Vietnamese: sĩ (士)

Etymology 2

More information simp. and trad. ...

Pronunciation

Definitions

士

  1. (music) Cantonese opera gongche notation for the note low la (6̣).
    Synonym: 四 (sì) (Kunqu)

Derived terms

  • 仕 (si6) (Cantonese)

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 士 – see 土 (“earth; soil; dust; etc.”).
(This character is a variant form of 土).

References

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Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

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