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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

信

xìn
true; accurate; verifiable
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 人
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hljins): phonetic 人 (OC *njin) + semantic 言 (“words”). Shuowen interprets it as an ideogrammic compound.

Schuessler (2007) reconstructs the Old Chinese minimally as *sin and suggests possible derivation from 允 (OC *winʔ, “to trust; to be true”).

Alternatively, Sagart and Baxter (2012) reconstruct *s-niŋ-s (*s-ni[ŋ]-s in Baxter and Sagart, 2014) and suggest a derivation from 仁 (OC *niŋ, “kind”) with the prefix *s-, probably used to increase its valency.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • derivedOld Chinese允 “to trust; to be true”
  • soundChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • derivedOld Chinese仁 “kind”
  • meaningChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”

Words built on it: 相信, 信息, 信用卡, 信心, 信任, 信封, 通信, 自信, 微信, 短信, 信仰, 信箱

Meanings

character
  1. true; accurate; verifiable
  2. truly; indeed
  3. trustworthy
  4. to believe; to trust in something
  5. to believe in (a faith); to be religious in
  6. trust; confidence; faith

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

信：誠也。从人从言。會意。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 把言語寫成文字傳達給特定對象的書面文件。 例：書信、平信、掛號信
  2. 消息。 例：音信、凶信、口信
  3. 誠實不欺。 例：忠信、信實、講信修睦
  4. 憑證、憑據。 例：印信、信物
  5. 聽從、不懷疑。 例：相信、深信不疑、不可置信
  6. 隨意。 例：信步、信手拈來、信口開河

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

How 信 was written 字形演變

  1. 信 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 信 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 信 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 信 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: 信