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賊

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: 戝 and 贼
賊 U+8CCA, 賊
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8CCA
← 賉
[U+8CC9] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 賋 →
[U+8CCB]

Translingual

Han character

賊 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+6, 13 strokes, cangjie input 月金戈十 (BCIJ), four-corner 63850, composition ⿰貝戎)

Derived characters

  • 𣿐, 𣛸, 𧒿, 𨆎, 鱡, 𦽒, 蠈

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 1208, character 14
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36759
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1672, character 10
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3637, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+8CCA

Chinese

More information trad., simp. ...

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 賊, Western Zhou ...
Characters in the same phonetic series (則) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
More information Old Chinese ...

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *zɯːɡ): phonetic 則 (OC *ʔsɯːɡ) + semantic 戈 (“weapon”).

This was later reinterpreted as a compound of 貝 (“money”) and 戎 (“weapon”) to produce the modern form.

Etymology 1

Possibly Sino-Tibetan; compare Tibetan ཇག (jag, “robbery”) (Coblin, 1986). Schuessler (2007) points out that a palatalized consonant in Tibetan does not usually correspond to an unpalatalized one in Chinese; instead, he compares it to Khmer ឆក់ (chɑk, “to snatch; to steal”).

Possibly cognate with 災 (OC *ʔslɯː, “natural disaster”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Based on evidence from early loans from Chinese, e.g. Lakkia kjak⁸ (“bandit”) and Rục kəcʌ́ːk (“bandit”), Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstructs the Old Chinese with a *k preinitial.

Pronunciation

Note:
  • zui2 - vernacular;
  • ze2 - literary.
  • Dialectal data
More information Variety, Location ...
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

賊

  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to damage; to corrupt; to ruin; to destroy
  2. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to harm; to injure
  3. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to slander
  4. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to murder
  5. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) murderer
  6. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) harm; disaster
  7. thief; bandit; robber (Classifier: 個／个 m c)
    琴日有賊入咗屋，偷走咗我部電腦。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    琴日有贼入咗屋，偷走咗我部电脑。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    kam4 jat6 jau5 caak6-2 jap6 zo2 uk1, tau1 zau2 zo2 ngo5 bou6 din6 nou5. [Jyutping]
    Yesterday, a thief came into my house and stole my computer.
  8. villain; traitor
  9. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to steal
  10. evil; wicked; treacherous
  11. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to restrain
  12. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) ruthless; vicious
  13. (colloquial, dialectal) cunning; wily; sly
  14. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) a kind of pest that eats the joints of a seedling
    蟊賊／蟊贼  ―  máozéi  ―  insects that eat the roots and the joints

Usage notes

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 小偷 (“(petty) thief”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (賊):
  • → Japanese: 賊(ぞく) (zoku)
  • → Vietnamese: tặc (賊)

Others:

  • → Proto-Southwestern Tai: *sɤkᴰ
  • → Vietnamese: giặc
  • →? Proto-Turkic: *yagï (war, bandit) (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Etymology 2

Compare 很 (hěn) / 狠 (hěn) and 蠻／蛮 (mán); both share the extension of meaning from “cruel” > “very; quite”.

Pronunciation

Definitions

賊

  1. (formerly dialectal, including Northeastern Mandarin, increasingly informal) very; particularly; immensely; extremely
    賊好看／贼好看  ―  zéi hǎokàn  ―  remarkably beautiful

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 很 (“very”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...

Compounds

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Korean

Vietnamese

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