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字

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: 宇, 亭, and 宁
字 U+5B57, 字
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5B57
← 孖
[U+5B56] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 存 →
[U+5B58]
Thumb
🈑 U+1F211, 🈑
SQUARED CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5B57
← 🈐
[U+1F210] 		Enclosed Ideographic Supplement 🈒 →
[U+1F212]

Translingual

More information Stroke order ...
More information Stroke order ...

Han character

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

Derived characters

Additional Derived Characters
  • 𪜸, 𭇬, 𬇤, 𭸇, 𣑑, 𡨸, 𫃣, 𦍺, 𮋩, 𫇊, 𧧕, 𲂯, 𫒛, 𪰿, 𮪃
  • 𡦂, 𫿰, 𫡉, 𭓆, 𫳘, 𪧚, 𭓖, 𭓙, 𡶻, 𣉬, 𡦙, 𥊐, 𱚂

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 277, character 18
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6942
  • Dae Jaweon: page 545, character 7
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1010, character 2
  • Unihan data for U+5B57
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Chinese

More information simp. and trad. ...

Glyph origin

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, 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), Burmese စာ (ca, “writing, letter”).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • zi5 - vernacular;
  • zo5/zer5 - literary.
  • Dialectal data
More information Variety, Location ...
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

字

  1. letter; symbol; character, especially a Chinese character (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 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?
    字母  ―  zìmǔ  ―  letter
    字串  ―  zìchuàn  ―  character string
  2. 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.
  3. (computing) word (natural unit of data)
  4. handwriting; writing
    他的字很差。  ―  Tā de zì hěn chà.  ―  His handwriting is very bad.
    字如其人  ―  zì rú qí rén  ―  One's handwriting is like the one themself
  5. (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)
    仲尼是孔子的字。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]
    Zhòngní shì Kǒngzǐ de zì. [Pinyin]
    Zhongni is the courtesy name of Confucius.
  6. (historical) to style; to give someone a courtesy name
    岳飛字鵬舉。／岳飞字鹏举。  ―  Yuèfēi zì péng jǔ.  ―  Yue Fei is styled with the courtesy name of Pengju.
  7. (calligraphy) style of handwriting; printing type
    柳字  ―  liǔzì  ―  style of calligraphy of Liu Gongquan
  8. (calligraphy) (a calligrapher's) calligraphy work
    字畫／字画  ―  zìhuà  ―  calligraphy and painting
  9. pronunciation of a character; pronunciation
    字正腔圓／字正腔圆  ―  zìzhèngqiāngyuán  ―  pronouncing every word clearly and correctly
  10. written letter; message; correspondence
  11. receipt; contract; slip
    我還沒收到款子，先別寫個字兒給他。 [MSC, trad.]
    我还没收到款子，先别写个字儿给他。 [MSC, simp.]
    Wǒ háiméi shōu dào kuǎnzi, xiān bié xiě ge zìr gěi tā. [Pinyin]
    I haven't received the sum of payment yet, so don't write a receipt for him yet.
  12. (colloquial) side of a coin with written characters; tails
    Antonyms: 鏝 / 镘 (màn), 公 (gung1) (Cantonese)
  13. (Cantonese, Hakka, Min, Malaysia, Singapore) five minutes (derived from the locations of 1 to 12 on a clock face) (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)
    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 [Hokkien]  ―  chhit tiám nn̄g jī [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  ten past seven
    一個字／一个字 [Teochew]  ―  zêg8 gai5 ri7 [Peng'im]  ―  five minutes [i.e. when the minute hand points to 1]
    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)
  14. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to give birth to; to deliver a baby; to bring into the world
  15. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to be pregnant; to be carrying a baby
  16. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese, 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
  17. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to bring up; to raise; to rear (a child)
  18. (obsolete or Guzhang Waxiang) to love; to cherish; to care very much for
  19. (Luxi Waxiang) to envy; to be jealous of; to admire
  20. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to educate; to teach; to instruct
  21. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to govern; to administer
  22. a surname
  23. (Penang Hokkien) certificate

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 字 (“written character”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...
Dialectal synonyms of 字 (“side of a coin with written characters”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...
Dialectal synonyms of 喜歡 (“to like”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (字):
  • → Japanese: 字(じ) (ji)
  • → Korean: 자(字) (ja)
  • → Vietnamese: tự (字)

Others:

  • → Proto-Tai: *ɟɤ:ᴮ (“name”)
  • → Vietnamese: chữ (“script; letter; writing; word”), chửa (“to be pregnant”)

References

  • “字”, 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–
  • 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long]; 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu]; 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying]; 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019), “字”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 164.
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Vietnamese

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