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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

入

rù
to enter; to go into
  • Ideogram
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 入
  • 2 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Ideogram (指事) - an arrowhead indicating "to enter".

Compare 人 (rén).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *nup ~ nip. Cognate with Tibetan ནུབ (nub, “to fall (gradually), sink, to set; to decay, to decline”) and Burmese နိပ် (nip, “to decline (e.g. price); to be suppressed, to settle, to be quelled”).

Chinese characters belonging to the same word family include:

* 納 (OC *nuːb, “to make enter”)

* 內 (OC *nuːbs, “inside”)

* 軜 (OC *nuːb, “reins on the inside of the horse”)

* 妠 (OC *nuːms, *nuːb, *rnoːd, “to marry (a girl)”)

* 躡 (OC *neb, “to tiptoe, tread”)

* 攝 (OC *neːb, *ʔnjeb, “to take in, photograph, grasp”)

* 鑷 (OC *neb, “tweezers, forceps”)

* and potentially Cantonese 擸 (laap3, “to bring together, to collect”), as well as 退 (OC *n̥ʰuːbs, “to withdraw, retire”)

The regular Mandarin pronunciation as predicted from Middle Chinese is rì. The irregular sound change is for taboo reasons - to avoid homophony with its derived vulgar meaning "to enter > to have sexual intercourse", nowadays represented by 日 (rì).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese乁
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*nup ~ nip
  • partChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”

Related: Tibetan ནུབ, Burmese နိပ်

Words built on it: 內, 全, 收入, 加入, 入口, 深入, 投入, 列入

Meanings

character
  1. to enter; to go into
  2. to join; to become a member of
  3. to accept; to admit
  4. to pay
  5. income
  6. to confirm; to agree

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

入：内也。象从上俱下也。凡入之屬皆从入。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 由外面到裡面。與「出」相對。 例：入內、入場、入境　◎
  2. 收納金錢。 例：收入、月入數萬、入不敷出
  3. 參加。 例：入會、入股、入學
  4. 到、達。 例：入夜、入冬
  5. 合於、合乎。 例：入時、入情入理
  6. 深透。 例：入味、入骨、入迷

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

How 入 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 入