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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

交

jiāo
to intersect; to cross
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 亠
  • 6 strokes
  • 胶

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Origin

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形) – a human with crossed legs. In today's writing, the upper part of the human is similar to 立, which in turn depicts a man standing. Unrelated to 父.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rjaw (“mix”); cognate with Burmese ရော (rau:, “to mix”), Jingpho yau (“be mixed”), kəjau (“to mix, intermix”), compare Chepang [script needed] (ljawh-ʔo, “mixed”) and Proto-Mienic *klaau³ (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 交 – see 跤 (“tumble; fall; leg; foot; lower limb; etc.”).

(This character is the second-round simplified form of 跤).

Notes:

Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Compare Teochew 邀 (giao1).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Related: Burmese ရော, Jingpho yau

Words built on it: 較, 交通, 交流, 交易, 外交, 交往, 校, 咬

Meanings

character
  1. to intersect; to cross
  2. to reach (a certain time)
  3. time or place where two things meet
  4. to hand over; to turn in; to submit
  5. to make (friends)
  6. friendship; relationship

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

交：交脛也。从大，象交形。凡交之屬皆从交。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 叉狀接合。 例：兩線相交於一點。
  2. 互相往來。 例：交朋友要謹慎。
  3. 授與、付給。 例：交付、交貨、交辦
  4. 互相、彼此。 例：交戰、上下交相賊
  5. 兩性媾合。 例：交配、性交
  6. 錯雜、雜合。 例：水乳交融、風雨交加

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

How 交 was written 字形演變

  1. 交 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 交 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 交 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 交 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: 交