源etymfun
About

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

分

fēn
to divide; to separate
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 刀
  • 4 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

The character 分 is an ideogrammic compound (會意) composed of the elements 八 (“to separate”) and 刀 (“knife; blade”). According to the Shuowen Jiezi, the character means to separate (別也), combining these components to represent the act of using a knife to separate things.

Beyond the primary sense of dividing or breaking up, the character can refer to a person's status, duties, or scope of rights within society, human relationships, the qualities that constitute things, or a part of a whole. It is noted as being synonymous with 份 in the context of a part of a whole. The character appears in several ancient scripts, including oracle, bronze, chu, qin, seal, and regular scripts.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese八 “eight”
  • ideaChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”

Words built on it: 份, 十分, 部分, 一部分, 大部分, 分析, 分配, 分享, 充分, 分鐘, 得分, 分手

Wiktionary etymology text

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 八 (“to separate”) + 刀 (“knife”) – to separate with a knife.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. to divide; to separate
  2. to distribute; to allocate; to assign; to allot
  3. to distinguish; to differentiate; to tell apart
  4. to break up; to end a relationship; to separate
  5. to give
  6. by

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

分：別也。从八从刀，刀以分別物也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 一個人在社會中所擁有的名位、職責、權利的範圍。 例：身分、名分、職分
  2. 人情關係。 例：情分、緣分
  3. 構成事物的質素。 例：糖分、養分
  4. 整體中的局部。同「份」。 例：早餐時，弟弟把我的分也一併吃掉了。

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

How 分 was written 字形演變

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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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: 分