Chinese

住

zhù
to live; to dwell; to reside
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 人
  • 7 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

The character 住 is a phono-semantic compound. It consists of the semantic component 亻, representing a person, and the phonetic component 主, meaning owner or master.

In terms of its reconstruction, the phonetic component is associated with Old Chinese *tjoʔ. While it has been suggested that the character derives from a Proto-Sino-Tibetan root *m-duŋ/k or *m-tuŋ/k meaning “to sit,” this connection is considered dubious because the vowels do not match.

Beyond its primary meanings of residing or staying, the character can also mean to stop or cease. It may function as a verb suffix to indicate firmness, steadiness, or coming to a halt.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「住」是一個形聲字。其組成包含表示意義的部首「亻」（人），以及作為音符的「主」。根據相關說法，「主」在中古漢語的讀音為 *tjoʔ，而「住」的中古漢語讀音則為 *tos 或 *dos。

在意義方面，「住」代表居留、歇宿，或是停止。此外，它也可以作為動詞後綴，用來表示堅固、穩定或停止的狀態。關於其來源，曾有學者認為它可能源自原始漢藏語的 *m-duŋ/k 或 *m-tuŋ/k（意為「坐」），但由於元音並不匹配，此說法仍存有疑慮。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • soundChinese主 “owner; master”

Words built on it: 居住, 住院, 住房, 抓住, 忍不住, 住宅, 站住

Wiktionary etymology text

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tos, *dos): semantic 亻 + phonetic 主 (OC *tjoʔ). See also 駐.

Derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-duŋ/k ~ m-tuŋ/k (“to sit”) by STEDT, but this is dubious as the vowels do not match.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources