Character etymology for newbie "Pretty Clothes" 衣服
mandarinboy
September 13, 2008, 07:45 AM posted in General Discussion
Since probably more than just me wonders over the characters I thought that I as well could post my own structure of the words in the lessons. I take one word per post since otherwise the post would be too long. New word 衣服 yīfu clothing Character: 衣 Pinyin: yī Meaning: clothes, clothing; cover, skin HSK level: 1 (basic) Frequency: 590 Strokes: 6
Stroke animation: (the strokes are drawn the direction the picture is tipping)
Etymology: The picture shows on the top the outer garments with sleeves and the bottom the flowing robes. You have probably seems the Chinese cloths with the big hanging sleeves:
Stroke order animation: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-stroke-order.php?searchChinese=1&zi=%E8%A1%A3
Is a radical. Combined with other characters parts it denotes something with clothes. 袈 jiā Buddhist monks robe Notes, when the radical is on the left in a character it changes shape to this: 衤 衬 chèn underwear; inner garments Gives pronunciation to other characters, such as依yī rely on, consent, obey a wish (here it is the person that is the radical) Example words:
Example words:
洗衣机 xǐ yī jī washer / washing machine
内衣 nèi yī undergarment / underwear
睡衣 shuì yī night clothes / pajamas
衣装 yī zhuāng garment
雨衣 yǔ yī raincoat
衬衣 chèn yī shirt
救生衣 jiù shēng yī life jacket / life vest
洗衣店 xǐ yī diàn laundry-shop
戎衣 róng yī military uniform
衣厨 yī chú wardrobe
衣架 yī jià clothes-hanger clothes-rack
Character: 服
Pinyin: fú
Meaning: clothes; wear, dress
HSL level: 1 (basic)
Frequency: 357
Strokes: 8
Stroke animation: (the strokes are drawn the direction the picture is tipping)
Etymology: This is a tricky one, especially since the left part (moon) has replaced the original boat part. The lower right part, 又 is a hand (think of the lower right part as the arm and the three other as fingers). To the left of that is a seal part. In ancient China seals where used to sign important government documents so this represents to govern or to be governed. The character really looks like a Chinese seal. The left part is nowadays a representation of the moon but where from the beginning a boat. So, this is the action of the boat under the direction of the captain to yield, to assent to, to be attached to, just like a girdle and that leads us to clothes.
The moon part is the radical
Other words with this character:
服务 fú wù to serve / service 舒服 shū fu comfortable / feeling well 佩服 pèi fú admire 倾服 qīng fú to admire 服用 fú yòng to take (medicine) 服务业 fú wù yè service industry 服药 fú yào to take drugs 服务费 fú wù fèi service charge / cover charge 工作服 gōng zuò fú work clothes 运动服 yùn dòng fú sportswear 服务台 fú wù tái service desk / information desk / reception desk 服刑 fú xíng to serve a prison sentence 服气 fú qì to convince 脱衣服 tuō yī fú undress 女服务员 nǚ fú wù yuán stewardess,female clerk 男服务员 nán fú wù yuán steward / male clerk / male flight attendant 使人信服 shǐ rén xìn fú convincing 使信服 shǐ xìn fú to convince
mandarinboy
September 07, 2008, 12:22 PMI am not 100% sure but what i heard from my teachers in China is where changed during one of the many simplification that have taken place in the history of Chinese characters. Since the first pictographs there have been many such simplifications, not only the one that we know of today that lead to the so called simplified characters. Since the study of the origin of the Chinese characters is full of knowlege gaps we will not always be 100% sure why character looks the way they are or why it where changed. For simple pictographs like mountai, 山, there is no doubt about the background but for many others they are qualified gueses at the best. That is also why there are so many different ideas about the origin. There is still many struggles among historians about the "true" origin of some characters. For me it is enough if i find one that works for me and my memory. I usualy use several different books when i look up new characters and if they do not have the same explanatios, I simply choose the one that feels most logical to me:-) I have spend the past few weeks in Japan and here they have different views of the origin of some of the Characters. This is sort of fun since the Japanese characters origin from the Chinese.
changye
September 08, 2008, 03:34 AMHi guys,
It’s interesting to know that the radical “舟” in some characters changed into “月” in the past. I’ve just found that the same goes for some other characters, such as 朕, 朝, 前, and 俞. Etymologically speaking, all these characters had something to do with the radical “舟” (boat) when they were invented.
I also don’t know why “舟” changed into “月”, but I guess that was probably because the shape of “月” is similar to that of “舟”, and the former one is easier to write than the latter. Btw, “月” (moon) is a rather tricky radical, since it also means “肉” (meat). In a sense, “月” is a multi-task radical.
There are a lot of 月 (meat)-related characters, such as 肌 (skin)，肝 (liver)，肠 (intestine)，肴 (meat and fish dishes)，膳 (meal)，etc. Interestingly, the shapes of 肉 and 月 in oracle bone characters (甲骨文) were also similar to each other, and later they changed in to the same shape perhaps in small seal scripts (小篆).
chanelle77
September 09, 2008, 06:49 PMAh I see: very intesting. thx Changye & Mandarinboy
chanelle77
September 07, 2008, 07:29 AMVery interesting. Btw, is there a reason why the "boat" changed to a "moon"?