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

副

fù
subsidiary, auxiliary; sub-; vice-
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 刀
  • 11 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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *pʰɯɡs, *pʰrɯɡ, *pʰɯɡ): phonetic 畐 (OC *pʰrɯɡ, *bɯɡ) + semantic 刂 (“knife”).

Jiajie (假借) from 褔 (fù, “to be filled with”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese畐 “full, filled”
  • meaningChinese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)”

Meanings

character
  1. subsidiary, auxiliary; sub-; vice-
  2. auxiliary position; deputy officer
  3. mate (officer of a ship)
  4. secondary (as opposed to primary), para-; accompanying
  5. to assist, support, aid
  6. duplicate

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

副：判也。从刀畐聲。《周禮》曰：“副辜祭。”

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 職務是輔助的或擔任輔佐職務的人。 例：副手、排副、副總統
  2. 附帶的。 例：副作用、副產品
  3. 次要的。與「正」相對。 例：副本、副業、副食品
  4. 符合、相稱。 例：名副其實
  5. 量詞。計算成套、成組物品的單位。俗作「付」。 例：一副碗筷、兩副耳環、三副眼鏡

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

How 副 was written 字形演變

  1. 副 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 副 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 副