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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

候

hòu
to reconnoitre; to scout
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • radical 人
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡoːs): semantic 亻 + phonetic 矦 (OC *ɡoː), as 𠊱. The 矦 component (modified so that ⺈ becomes 乛 on top and 丿 at left becomes 丨) is an ancient form of 侯 (hóu).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

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

Words built on it: 時候

Meanings

character
  1. to reconnoitre; to scout
  2. to observe; to survey
  3. to wait for; to await
  4. to respectfully await
  5. to visit; to send one's respects to
  6. to wait on; to attend to; to take care of

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 等待。 例：等候、候車、逾時不候
  2. 請安、問好。 例：問候、敬候興居
  3. 事物的情況或徵兆。 例：症候、火候、徵候
  4. 時間、時令、時節。 例：時候、天候
  5. 服侍。 例：伺候
  6. 診察。 例：候脈

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

How 候 was written 字形演變

  1. 候 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 候 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 候