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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

別

bié
to divide; to separate
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 刀
  • 7 strokes

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Origin

The character 別 is an ideogrammic compound composed of 冎 (bone) and 刂 (knife). The original form, 𠛰, depicted the act of cutting up bone and flesh, which was later stylized into the modern form. It is reconstructed from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brat, meaning to cut apart or cut open. This root is cognate to the Chinese characters 八, 列, and 裂, as well as the Burmese word ပြတ်, meaning to cut off.

Scholars debate the relationship between its different senses. Mei (2008) proposes that the intransitive sense of "to leave, to part" is primary, while the transitive sense of "to discriminate" is derived via a causative prefix. Conversely, Sagart and Baxter (2012) suggest the intransitive sense is derived from the transitive sense through prefixation. Additionally, Yang (2017) and Liu (2021) suggest the sense "do not" is a contraction of 不要, making it a doublet of 嫑.

Oldest attested scripts for this character include oracle, qin, seal, and regular scripts.

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

Lineage

  • ideaChinese冎 “bone”
  • 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)”

Related: Burmese ပြတ်

Words built on it: 別人

Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 冎 (“bone”) + 刂 (“knife”), hence 𠛰 – to cut up bone and flesh. Later, the character was stylized as 別. See also 另.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *brat (“cut apart, cut open”). Cognate to 八 (OC *preːd, “to divide; to differentiate”), 列 (OC *red), 裂 (OC *red). See also Burmese ပြတ် (prat, “to cut off”) (Hill, 2019).

Mei (2008) proposes that the intransitive sense "to leave, to part" (with voiced initial *b- in Middle Chinese) is primary and that the transitive sense "to discriminate, to discriminate" (with voiceless initial *p-) is derived from the intransitive sense with the Old Chinese causative prefix *s-, resulting in a devoicing effect: *s-b- > *s-p- > *p-; compare 黑 (OC *s-mək, “black”) from 墨 (OC *mək, “ink”). On the other hand, Sagart and Baxter (2012) consider the intransitive sense to be derived from the transitive sense (*pret) by prefixation of *N-, resulting in a voicing effect: *N-p- > *N-b- > *b-; compare 敗 (OC *N-pˤrat-s, “to suffer defeat”) from 敗 (OC *pˤrat-s, “to defeat”).

Etymology 2

Yang (2017) and Liu (2021) suggest the sense "do not" is a contraction of 不要 (bùyào). Thus, it is a doublet of 別要／别要, and 嫑 (báo).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. to divide; to separate
  2. to distinguish; to differentiate; to discriminate
  3. distinction; difference; contrast
  4. group; class; kind
  5. to leave; to part
  6. to turn; to change

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 分離、離開。 例：告別、永別、久別重逢
  2. 區分、分辨。 例：辨別、鑑別、識別證
  3. 差距、差異。 例：天壤之別
  4. 另外。 例：別人、別稱、別開生面
  5. 種類。 例：性別、國別、派別
  6. 不要。表勸阻或禁止的意思。 例：別生氣！

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

How 別 was written 字形演變

  1. 別 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 別 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 別 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 別 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
  • 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: 別