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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

具

jù
tool; implement
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 八
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 鼎 (“cauldron”) + 廾 (“two hands”) – to prepare food. A semi-conservative variant 𥃲 is similar but unrelated to 算.

Shuowen mistakes the middle component to be 貝 and interprets the character as referring to currency.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese鼎 “ding (ancient large, three-legged bronze cauldron for cooking or sacrificial rituals)”
  • ideaChinese廾 “both hands”

Words built on it: 具有, 工具, 家具, 玩具

Meanings

character
  1. tool; implement
  2. to possess; to have
  3. to provide; to furnish
  4. ability; talent
  5. to state; to report; to list
  6. feast

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

具：共置也。从廾，从貝省。古以貝爲貨。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 有、備有。 例：具備、獨具慧眼
  2. 準備、設置。 例：故人具雞黍，邀我至田家。（唐．孟浩然〈過故人莊〉詩）
  3. 陳述、列舉。 例：具狀、具名
  4. 器物、用器。 例：文具、道具、工具
  5. 才能、才幹。 例：才具
  6. 量詞。計算器物、屍體等的單位。 例：兩具屍體、棺材一具、三具電話

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

How 具 was written 字形演變

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