Chinese Etymology and the Origins of Chinese Characters

Chinese etymology is easier to grasp than it might first appear, and learning the origins of Chinese characters is arguably one of the best ways to gain further mastery of the language.

Join us as we tackle the meaning of the term "etymology," its history in the Chinese context, and some practical tips for analyzing characters. Climb aboard!

01 What is etymology?

Etymology is the study of the origins and original meanings of words.

Sometimes this involves investigating a word's foreign ancestry. At other times it means examining earlier incarnations of a word recorded in ancient literature, or tracking the changes in how it was and is pronounced.

An etymology of etymology

Let's analyze the word "etymology" itself to show exactly how this process works.

The root words of "etymology" are the Greek "étumon" (ἔτυμον), meaning "true sense, original meaning," and "logía" (λογία), meaning "branch of study."

Combine the two — etym (original meaning) + logy (branch of study) — and you get etymology, a branch of study dedicated to original meanings. You probably recognize that "logy" ending from words like biology (study of life), theology (study of god), and sociology (study of society).

In Chinese, the word for etymology (字源 zìyuán) also clearly betrays its meaning. The character 字 means "word" and 源 means "source" or "origin."

Bits and pieces: orthography and phonology

By tracking down the original meanings of a word's different parts, you can gain a nuanced understanding of its current meaning. Because of English's unique history of extensive borrowing from other languages, understanding an English word's etymology often means delving into its French, Latin, or German roots.

This expansive habit of borrowing can make for some surprising origins in the case of many English words.

One important focus of etymology is understanding a word's development by tracing the history of its changing spellings and changing sounds. The spelling side is called orthography — from "orthos" (correct) and "graphia" (writing) — while the sound side is called phonology, from "phono" (sound) and "logy" (branch of study).

Etymologists also try to track how the meanings of words shift over time. This kind of semantic "sense development" requires a certain amount of guesswork and is seen as more difficult than tracking formal changes in spelling and sound.

English versus Chinese etymology

Since Chinese doesn't employ an alphabet the way English does, Chinese etymology works differently from English etymology.

English etymology can engage in a relatively straightforward process: tracking phonological changes (how pronunciation shifts) by tracking orthographic changes (how spelling shifts). In Chinese the process is different, mostly because tracking pronunciation changes is far less straightforward in a language that isn't phonetic.

Knowing how a character was written 3,000 years ago in an oracle-bone inscription (甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén) doesn't necessarily reveal how it was — or is — pronounced. It may, however, reveal how the word's meaning developed, which is why Chinese etymology mostly focuses on the evolution of characters' meanings and forms over time.

That said, there are useful techniques for discovering phonological changes in Chinese throughout history. One of them is to consult ancient rhyming poems.

By observing which characters once rhymed and studying how those age-old rhyme schemes differ from contemporary ones, scholars can learn a lot about how a character's pronunciation evolved. Even so, Chinese phonological development is generally treated as a separate field rather than a core part of etymology.

Chinese characters have passed through many writing styles, including the elegant small seal script (小篆 xiǎozhuàn) still prized in Chinese calligraphy.

02 A brief history of Chinese etymology

Despite the limitations that come from Chinese not being a phonetic language, scholarly interest in the etymological roots of words is a venerable Chinese tradition.

Discussing writing and explaining characters

Already in the era of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE), the renowned scholar Xu Shen penned a masterful etymological treatise called Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字 Shuōwén Jiězì).

The title literally means "discussing writing and explaining characters," and the text has stood the test of time. It is still considered an indispensable part of any literate Chinese person's reading list.

Containing definitions for more than 9,000 characters, Xu Shen's work represents one of the first systematic attempts to examine Chinese characters on an etymological basis, prioritizing their origins and first appearances.

The rectification of names

For Xu Shen and the Confucian scholars around him, these etymological adventures were not just an academic wild goose chase. They were part and parcel of statecraft and even an expression of religious devotion.

Much of the Confucian philosophy of the time was guided by a belief in the "Rectification of Names," or Zhèngmíng (正名).

The word 正名 pairs the character for correct or proper (正) with the character for name (名). Cosmic order was premised on the idea that everything and everyone had an ordained role to play — and if people or objects were given the wrong names, chaos might ensue.

This idea traces back to Confucius himself, who taught that words should correspond with reality.

This hope for "rectification" reflected a faith in the vital importance of assigning true names to people, things, relationships, and ideas.

If properly executed, the "Rectification of Names" was believed to result in utopian social harmony. With people, places, duties, and relationships rightly named and accurately defined, the smooth functioning of the state and cosmic equilibrium were seen as a cheerful inevitability.

With this Confucian commitment to "rectification" in mind, it becomes easier to see why an emphasis on etymology was such an important part of traditional Chinese scholarship.

03 The nuts and bolts of Chinese characters

As you make your first forays into Chinese etymology, it helps to have some grasp of the general component parts of the characters themselves.

In total, there are six ways to categorize Chinese characters, known as the 六书 (liùshū).

Characters are categorized according to their origins, so just knowing which of the six categories a character falls into can tell you something about the course of its development. An exhaustive exploration of this subject merits a whole article by itself — and luckily for you, an article on the types of Chinese characters already exists.

For now, here are three basic distinctions that will help you tackle written Chinese in general and Chinese etymology in particular.

Pictographic characters (象形字 xiàngxíngzì)

As the name "pictograph" indicates, characters in the 象形字 (xiàngxíngzì) category are visual representations of the objects they represent. New students of Mandarin often learn these characters first because their iconic nature makes them easy to remember.

Some common 象形字 include:

• 日 (rì; sun)
• 雨 (yǔ; rain)
• 火 (huǒ; fire)
• 口 (kǒu; mouth)

The fact that these characters look like what they represent can serve as a shortcut to understanding their meanings. Unfortunately, they comprise only about 4% of all Chinese characters — a useful thing to keep in mind when deciding how many Chinese characters you need to learn.

Phonetic and semantic components

As mentioned, Chinese does not have an alphabet and is not phonetic in the same way English is. Contrary to popular belief, however, many Chinese characters do contain pronunciation clues in the form of phonetic components.

Characters can often be broken down into a semantic part, which tells you what they mean, and a phonetic part, which tells you how they sound. Conveniently, these two parts are usually in predictable places — although, as with most things in Chinese, there are numerous exceptions.

In general, semantic components go on the left while phonetic components usually go on the right.

The classic example is 妈妈 (māmā), or "mom."

On the left semantic side there's the radical 女 (nǚ), meaning woman, and on the right there's the phonetic component 马, which we know is pronounced "mǎ."

So we know that the meaning of 妈妈 probably has something to do with a woman, thanks to the radical on the left, and is probably pronounced "ma," thanks to the 马 component on the right.

Ideograms (指事字 zhǐshìzì)

Chinese characters in the ideogram category are much like pictographs, but they are used to represent more abstract concepts and objects.

A great example is the Chinese representation of the first three numbers:

• 1: 一 (yī)
• 2: 二 (èr)
• 3: 三 (sān)

Their meaning is clearly and explicitly represented in the characters, which consist of different numbers of horizontal lines.

04 Water (水): an experiment in Chinese etymology

The Chinese character for water, 水 (shuǐ), is an excellent example of the etymological journey many modern Chinese characters have taken. It's a pictographic character (象形字 xiàngxíngzì), meaning the character looks like the object it represents.

To understand its etymology, we can track its development from its origins as an oracle-bone character all the way to the present day.

In the original attempt to depict water, the creator of 水 (shuǐ) faced a challenge: how do you create an image for water that everyone in the culture would understand? The answer was the river — so the earliest character for water resembled a picture of flowing water.

Over time, as written Chinese meandered along the ways and byways of the Middle Kingdom's long history, the original visual inspiration was diluted and abstracted. In modern times, the character bears only limited resemblance to its original form.

As an educational tool, knowing the story of a character's origin — and practicing its stroke order — can keep you from forgetting it in the future.

For a live-action visual trek through the evolutionary history of the water character, check out the video below.

05 Uncle Hanzi

Richard Sears, known in the Chinese media as "Uncle Hanzi," or 汉字叔叔 (Hànzì Shūshū), is a well-known American living in China who has made a name for himself as an expert on the etymological origins of Chinese characters.

Eureka

Back in the 1970s, Richard was a 22-year-old Tennessean living in Taipei, desperate to find a way to master the rigors of the Chinese language. After some exploration, he found that studying Chinese etymology both interested him and helped him remember the meanings of characters.

By engaging directly with the histories of the characters themselves, rather than trying to rote-memorize them in huge batches, he found he was learning at an accelerated pace. After trawling through a couple of university libraries, however, he was aghast at the lack of etymological resources at his disposal.

This dearth of resources launched Richard on a 50-year quest to document, explore, and make accessible the etymologies of Chinese characters.

Now into the 50th year of this life's work, Richard has launched a sleek website. Using what he calls "computerized etymology," he hopes to make Chinese etymology available to all.

This digital archive is a veritable treasure trove of definitions that help peel away the historical layers of many Chinese characters. For a fun jaunt through the historical twists and turns of various characters, try the "random character" function on the homepage and see where it leads you.

06 A bridge into China

Because of its deep connections with Chinese politics, philosophy, religion, and history, Chinese etymology provides a bridge into both traditional and contemporary Chinese culture.

The best way to understand China, its characters, and the Chinese language itself is to experience them in an immersive environment. If you'd like to Learn Chinese in China, we invite you to join us in Guilin to explore Chinese etymology firsthand with an experienced CLI teacher.

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07 Chinese etymology vocabulary

The terms below will help you follow etymology discussions, character breakdowns, and conversations about written Chinese.

08 FAQ