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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

剛

gāng
firm; hard; stiff
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 刀
  • 10 strokes
  • 將
  • 将

Etymology graph

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

A Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): semantic 山 (shān) and phonetic 刚, an oracle bone script form of 网 and 刀 (dāo) (not the simplified form of 剛).

Along with 鋼 (OC *klaːŋ, *klaːŋs, “steel”), derived from the terminative of 固 (OC *kaːs, “firm, solid, hard”), literally "having become solid, hard" (Schuessler, 2007). The word can be reconstructed all the way back to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rkaŋ.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese岡 “ridge or crest of a mountain”
  • partChinese刂
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*rkaŋ

Meanings

character
  1. firm; hard; stiff
  2. strong
  3. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

剛：彊斷也。从刀岡聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 強勁、堅強。與「柔」相對。 例：剛強、剛正、剛直
  2. 表示情況或行動不久前才發生過。 例：他剛走。
  3. 恰好、正好。 例：剛好、剛巧

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

How 剛 was written 字形演變

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