源etymfun
About

Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

世

shì
generation
  • Jiajie
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 一
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Jiajie (假借): Variant form of 枼 (the original form of 葉 (OC *leb, “leaf”)) with the tree removed.

Shuowen interprets it as 十 triplicated: thirty years make one generation (thirty times twelve months gives 360 months).

世 (OC *hljebs) is derived from iterative devoicing of 葉 (OC *leb, “leaf”) + *-s suffix, meaning successive foliages of a tree > generations. Compare Tibetan ལོ་མ (lo ma, “leaf”), Western Tibetan ལོབ་མ (lob ma, “leaf”) and Tibetan ལོ (lo, “year”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Related: Tibetan ལོ་མ, Tibetan ལོབ་མ, Tibetan ལོ

Words built on it: 世界, 去世, 全世界

Meanings

character
  1. generation
  2. for many generations; spanning many generations
  3. longstanding friendship between two families; generations of family friendship
  4. lifetime; all one's life; one's whole life
  5. era; period; time
  6. epoch (geochronologic unit)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

世：三十年爲一丗。从卅而曳長之。亦取其聲也。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 三十年稱為「一世」。
  2. 父子相繼稱為「一世」。即一代。 例：五世其昌
  3. 朝代、時代。 例：末世、周世、秦世
  4. 一生、一輩子。 例：一生一世
  5. 世界、世間。 例：傳世、避世、世外桃源
  6. 有兩代以上交誼的。 例：世姪、世誼

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 世 was written 字形演變

  1. 世 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 世 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 世 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 世 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 世