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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

作

zuò
to get up (from a place)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 人
  • 7 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ʔsaːɡs, *ʔsaːɡs, *ʔsaːɡ): semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 乍 (OC *zraːɡs).

Derivative: 做 (“to do”) (the departing-tone variant).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

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

Words built on it: 工作, 合作, 作品, 作用, 作家, 作者, 作文, 操作, 著作, 作出

Meanings

character
  1. to get up (from a place)
  2. to get up (in the morning) and go to work
  3. to begin to grow; to come into being
  4. to arise; to come about; to happen; to occur; to break out
  5. to do; to perform; to carry out
  6. to work; to exert oneself

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

作：起也。从人从乍。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 興起、奮起。 例：振作、興風作浪、一鼓作氣
  2. 創發、製造。 例：創作、寫作、製作
  3. 進行、舉行。 例：作媒、作戰、為非作歹
  4. 假裝。 例：裝腔作勢、裝模作樣、矯揉造作
  5. 成為、當成。 例：以身作則、認賊作父
  6. 詩文書畫與藝術品稱為「作」。 例：畫作、著作、名作

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

How 作 was written 字形演變

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