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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

久

jiǔ
long
  • pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 丿
  • 3 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Used interchangeably with 氒 in oracle bone script. Likely a pictogram (象形) of an arrow tip.

Possibly Sino-Tibetan. Compare Bantawa [script needed] (kʰokpa, “old man”) (Sagart, 2017d), which STEDT derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kwak (“old”).

舊 (OC *N-kʷəʔ-s) may be a derivative (Baxter and Sagart, 2014). See there for more.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Related: Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kwak

Words built on it: 不久, 多久, 好久

Meanings

character
  1. long
  2. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

久：以後灸之，象人兩脛後有距也。《周禮》曰：“久諸牆以觀其橈。”凡久之屬皆从久。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 時間長遠。 例：久違、久別重逢、久負盛名
  2. 經歷時間的長短。 例：他出去多久了？

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

How 久 was written 字形演變

  1. 久 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 久 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 久 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: 久