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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

亞

yà
second; inferior
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • radical 二
  • 8 strokes
  • 俹
  • 𱎫

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Pictogram (象形): an overhead view of a construction, likely a 亞-shaped tomb. Perhaps borrowed phonetically to mean "second; inferior".

Probably from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ʔrak (“inferior; dependent”), whence Tibetan རག (rag, “to depend on; subject; subservient; dependent”) (Bodman, 1980; Coblin, 1986).

Karlgren (1957) connects it to 惡 (OC *qaːɡ, “evil”), but Schuessler (2007) considers this to be unlikely due to the semantics.

The shangsheng pronunciation in Mandarin (yǎ) is a result of influence from the pronunciation of 啞／哑 (yǎ), whose written form contains 亞 as a component (Fu, 1958).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*ʔrak “inferior; dependent”

Related: Tibetan རག

Words built on it: 亞洲

Meanings

character
  1. second; inferior
  2. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

亞：醜也。象人局背之形。賈侍中說：以爲次弟也。凡亞之屬皆从亞。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 輸、低、較差。 例：他的歌唱技巧並不亞於你。
  2. 次一等的、第二的。 例：亞軍、亞熱帶、亞聖
  3. 亞洲的簡稱。 例：歐亞大陸

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

How 亞 was written 字形演變

  1. 亞 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 亞 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 亞 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 亞 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 亞 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: 亞