Character etymology for 买 (mǎi, to buy) and 卖 (mài, to sell)
mandarinboy
September 23, 2008, 09:21 PM posted in General Discussion
Today we will look at two characters as a change. 买 (mǎi, to buy) and 卖 (mài, to sell) Character: 买 Traditional form: 買 Meaning: to buy, purchase; bribe, persuade Frequency: 840 Strokes: 6
Pinyin: mǎi
Decomposition: 乛 wān (yǐ second) + 头 tóu head
Radical part: 乛 wān
Alternative forms of radical: 乙(yǐ ), 乚(yǐ ),乛
Radical meaning: second
Stroke animation: (the strokes are drawn the direction the picture is tipping)
Etymology: To understand this character we first need to look at the traditional form of the character: 買 By looking at early bronze version of the character we can see that it have changed very little before the latest simplification. The picture is a net over a cowry shell. In early days cowry shells where used as a sort of money.
Picture of a cowry shell
A net with goods e.g. fish is bought by giving your cowry shells as payment. There are many other suggested meanings to this. E.g with a net you can catch the cowry shells that can be used to buy things with. To get the antonym to sell 卖, mài, we just add 十 ,shí ,ten to the top.
One easy way to remember them my teacher at the university in Beijing learned me. The character who wants to buy is having an empty roof = need to buy goods. The one who is selling is having ten items on the roof that he likes to sell.
The character have been simplified and today we are using 头 tóu meaning body and 乛 yǐ meaning second. I remember this by thinking like this: You need a second person, the seller, to be able to buy.
Link to nciku usage of the character 买 (examples, sound etc)
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E4%B9%B0/1310046
Link to nciku usage of the character 卖 (examples, sound etc)
Example words:
购买 gòu mǎi purchase
买卖 mǎi mài buying and selling / business dealings
买单 mǎi dān pay the restaurant bill
购买者 gòu mǎi zhě purchaser
买主 mǎi zhǔ customer
买到 mǎi dào bought
买通 mǎi tōng
买方市场 mǎi fāng shì chǎng buyer's market
拍卖 pāi mài auction
专卖 zhuān mài monopoly / exclusive right to trade
卖方 mài fāng seller
卖完 mài wán to be sold out
卖国贼 mài guó zéi traitor
义卖会 yì mài huì bazaar
卖肉者 mài ròu zhě butcher
chanelle77
September 25, 2008, 08:02 AMHello guys,
Does any of you know if there is something like an etymology dictionary? I was in a bookstore today (I think Xinhua) and could not find it. A Chinese English teacher who wanted to help me had no idea what I was talking about unfortunately:-). Maybe someone can help me?
changye
September 25, 2008, 09:09 AMP/S. The following Chinese characters all have the phonetic radical “卖” (賣), but it is NOT the 賣 (mai4) that was invented by adding “出” to 買 (mai3), but is the 賣 (yu4) I mentioned in my above posting, and that is why these 賣-related characters are not pronounced as “mai” and they all have the pinyin “u” in modern Chinese.
读 犊 渎 牍 椟 黩 (du), 赎 (shu), 续 (xu)
changye
September 24, 2008, 12:42 PMHi mandarinboy,
The relation between 买 (買) and 卖 (賣) is very interesting. As you wrote, the former one “买 (買)” was invented first and later 卖 (賣) was created by adding “出” to 买 (買) when small seal scripts (小篆) were popular around 200 BC. In short, 買 (buy) + 出 (go out) = 賣 (sell).
The character 卖 (賣) was invented based on 买 (買) more than two thousand years ago with its consonant and vowel remained unchanged, however, its tone changed from 上声 (3rd tone) to 去声 (4th tone) so that people didn’t mistake 買 (buy) for 賣 (sell) in daily conversation.
I wonder how ancient Chinese people did “business” before the advent of 賣 (sell). Did 买 (買) mean both “buy” and “sell” in ancient China, just like 借 means “lend” and “borrow” in modern Chinese? Or did people make do with one word 買 (buy) when buying and selling goods?
As far as I know, there were two characters that mean “sell” in ancient times, namely 售 (shou4) and 鬻 (yu4). The latter one ”鬻 (yu4)” had its brother character 賣 (yu4, not mai4) in bronze inscriptions, but I don’t know if it had something to do with 賣 (mai4) that was invented later.
If you have relevant information, please let me know! I've long been very curious about this 买卖 issue.