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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

八

bā
eight
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 八
  • 2 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形): two bent lines indicating the original meaning of "to divide". This character is later borrowed to mean "eight" because of homonymy, making the original meaning obsolete (now represented by 分 and 別).

Unrelated to the bottom part of 兵, 共, 具, and 興, in which it represents two hands holding an object. Also unrelated to 只 and 兑 in which it represents air coming out of a mouth. Unrelated to 貝. Eventually, unrelated to the bottom part of 其, 真, and 典, in which it represents the legs of a table.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pV-rjat (“eight”). Compare Tibetan བརྒྱད (brgyad).

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brat (“cut apart, cut open”). Cognate to 別／别 (bié).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”
  • partChinese乁
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*brat ~ prat “cut apart, cut open”

Related: Tibetan བརྒྱད

Words built on it: 小, 分, 半, 平, 父

Meanings

character
  1. eight
  2. many; numerous
  3. pearl (the smallest size of usual type, standardized as 5 point)
  4. to gossip (about); to stick one's nose in
  5. nosey; meddling
  6. a surname, Ba

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

八：別也。象分別相背之形。凡八之屬皆从八。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 介於七與九之間的自然數。大寫作「捌」，阿拉伯數字作「8」。
  2. 表示數量是八的。 例：八字、八方
  3. 表示多方面，泛指多數。 例：四通八達 （原「八」字口語連用在去聲字前讀成陽平。[例]八號、八拜。今多不變調。）

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

How 八 was written 字形演變

  1. 八 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 八 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 八 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 八 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 八 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 八 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 八