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愛

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: 爱
愛 U+611B, 愛
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-611B
← 愚
[U+611A] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 愜 →
[U+611C]

Translingual

More information Stroke order ...

Han character

See images of 愛
(radical 61 + 9)

愛 (Kangxi radical 61, 心+9, 13 strokes, cangjie input 月月心水 (BBPE), four-corner 20247, composition ⿳爫冖𢖻)

Derived characters

Additional Derived Characters
  • 𭩊, 𣜬 (𪳗), 𥖦, 𥣁, 𧞇, 𦆔, 𦡝 (𫆫), 𧓁, 𮙀, 𨣥, 𩡣 (𩡖), 𪒱, 𪇈, 𥴨 (𫂖), 𤻅, 𨙤

Descendants

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 395, character 13
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10947
  • Dae Jaweon: page 732, character 2
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2323, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+611B
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Chinese

FWOTD – 8 April 2020
More information trad., simp. ...
Wikipedia has articles on:
  • 愛 (Written Standard Chinese?)
  • 愛 (Cantonese)
  • 愛 (Classical)
  • 愛 (Gan)
  • Oi (Hakka)
  • Ái (Eastern Min)
  • Ài (Southern Min)
  • 爱 (Wu)

Glyph origin

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

Originally 㤅 (xì), a phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *qɯːds): phonetic 旡 (OC *kɯds) + semantic 心 (“heart”). However, the phonetic component indicates somebody kneeling with an open mouth, perhaps, trilling.

As early as the Qin dynasty, a meaningless component 夊 (suī, “foot”) was added to the bottom of the character, as with some other characters depicting people. Compare 憂 / 忧 (yōu) (from 㥑). Hence, the character changed into 𢙴.

Further corruption of the top component of 𢙴 turned the original phonetic 旡 (jì) into ⿱爫冖.

Etymology

Based on Baxter's (1992) Old Chinese reconstruction /*ʔɨts/, STEDT suggests that it is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ŋ-(w)aːj (“to copulate; to love; to be gentle”). Compare Proto-Karen *ʔai (“to love”), whence Pa'o Karen [script needed] (ʔái, “to love”), S'gaw Karen အဲၣ် (ʼeh̀, “to love”); Southern Bai e⁴⁴ (“love”); Mizo hma-ngaih (“to love, to like”); Jingpho nwai (“to respect, to love”), ngwi (“to be gentle”); Burmese ငွေ့ (ngwe., “to be gentle, moderate”). The Chinese word is related to a Tibeto-Burman allofam without initial *ŋ-. STEDT states that an Old Chinese reconstruction of /*ʔɨjs/ for 愛 is also possible because Old Chinese rhyming does not provide direct evidence of contacts with *-t.

However, Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstructs /*[q]ˁə[p]-s/, which ends in *-p-s instead. The Old Chinese contrast between *-p-s and *-t-s was lost at a late stage of Old Chinese. The final *-p is not reflected in the Tibeto-Burman comparandum provided by STEDT, making the likelihood that the Chinese form is related to the rest very low (Sagart, 2019). Behr (2016) suggests a derivation from a verbal root meaning "to draw in; to inhale; to suck in", relating it to 吸 (OC *qʰ(r)əp, “to inhale”), 欱 (OC *qʰˁ[ə]p, “to sip”), 愾 (OC *qʰəp-s, “to sigh with regret”), 僾 (OC *qˁəp-s, “to pant”), 氣 (OC *C.qʰəp-s, “vapour; breath”).

Pronunciation

Note: The zero initial /∅-/ is commonly pronounced with a ng-initial /ŋ-/ in some varieties of Cantonese, including Hong Kong Cantonese.
Note:
  • ái - literary;
  • ó̤i - vernacular.
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

愛

  1. to love
    愛國／爱国  ―  àiguó  ―  to love one's country; to be patriotic
    我愛你。／我爱你。  ―  Wǒ ài nǐ.  ―  I love you.
  2. to treasure; to value
    愛面子／爱面子  ―  ài miànzi  ―  to be sensitive about one's reputation
  3. to like; to be fond of; to be keen on
    他愛說話。／他爱说话。  ―  Tā ài shuōhuà.  ―  He likes to talk.
    我不愛吃豬肉。／我不爱吃猪肉。  ―  Wǒ bù ài chī zhūròu.  ―  I don't like to eat pork.
  4. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to begrudge; to be reluctant
  5. to be prone; to be easy to
    愛發脾氣／爱发脾气  ―  ài fāpíqì  ―  to be short-tempered
    鐵愛生鏽。／铁爱生锈。  ―  Tiě ài shēngxiù.  ―  Iron rusts easily.
  6. love; affection
  7. love; benevolence
    遺愛人間／遗爱人间  ―  yí'àirénjiān  ―  to leave love behind
  8. something one loves; someone whom one loves
    割愛／割爱  ―  gē'ài  ―  to sacrifice something one loves to someone else
  9. Honorific for someone else's daughter; variant of 嬡／嫒 (ài).
    令愛／令爱  ―  lìng'ài  ―  your precious daughter
  10. beloved
    愛妻／爱妻  ―  àiqī  ―  beloved wife
    愛將／爱将  ―  àijiàng  ―  beloved general
  11. (Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Hokkien, Teochew) to want (an object)
    我唔愛咁多。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    我唔爱咁多。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    ngo5 m4 oi3 gam3 do1. [Jyutping]
    I don't want that much.
  12. (Hakka, Min, dated in Cantonese) to want (to do)
  13. (Hakka, Min) to need to; must
    有一點愛注意的。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
    有一点爱注意的。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]
    Ū chi̍t tiám ài chù-ì--ê. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]
    There's one thing you must bear in mind.
  14. (archaic) alternative form of 薆 / 𫉁 (ài, “ài”)
  15. a surname

Usage notes

  • When used for people, 愛／爱 usually refers to romantic love. When used like this, older Mandarin speakers often describe the use of this term as overly 肉麻 (ròumá, “overly romantic; corny; cheesy”). For this reason, the word 喜歡／喜欢 (xǐhuan, “to like”) might be used instead. Using the word 喜歡／喜欢 (xǐhuan) literally means like, but when used in a romantic context (especially boyfriend/girlfriend), it actually means love. Compare Japanese 好き (suki). However, younger Mandarin speakers, especially those who have been in love for some time, seem to have been influenced somewhat by Western culture, and are now using the verb 愛／爱 much more often than was socially acceptable in the past.

Synonyms

  • (to love): (literary, or in compounds) 戀／恋 (liàn)
  • (to like):
Dialectal synonyms of 喜歡 (“to like”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...
  • (love):
  • (to want an object):
Dialectal synonyms of 要 (“to wish to have; to want (an object)”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...
  • (to want to do something):
Dialectal synonyms of 要 (“to want (to do something)”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (愛):
  • → Japanese: 愛(あい) (ai)
  • → Korean: 애(愛) (ae)
  • → Vietnamese: ái (愛)

Others:

  • →? Proto-Hlai: *ʔəːp (“to love”)

Further reading

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Japanese

Korean

Okinawan

Old Japanese

Tày

Vietnamese

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