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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

化

huà
to change; to transform
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 匕
  • 4 strokes
  • 窪
  • 發
  • 洼
  • 发

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) of two 人 (“person”), one upright (亻) and one upside down (𠤎) — reversal; change. Shuowen also considers 𠤎 to be a phonetic component.

Compare 并, 比, 卬, 尼 and 北.

A possible derived term is 瓦 (OC *ŋʷraːlʔ, *ŋʷraːls, “earthenware, tile”), by eliminating causative devoicing and adding an endoactive rising tone (上聲), thus literally “that which has transformed (through fire)”. Also related to 貨 (OC *hŋʷaːls, “property, goods”), 吪 (OC *ŋʷaːl, “move, act”), and perhaps 訛 (OC *ŋʷaːl, “false”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Words built on it: 文化, 花, 消化, 貨

Meanings

character
  1. to change; to transform
  2. to become; to turn into
  3. to die
  4. to melt
  5. to dissolve
  6. Suffix denoting "change into ...". Akin to English -ize and -ization.

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

化：教行也。从𠤎从人，𠤎亦聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 改變、變易。 例：教化、千變萬化、潛移默化
  2. 死。 例：物化、羽化、鶴化
  3. 物體消融、改變形狀。 例：溶化、消化、火化
  4. 消除。 例：化痰止渴
  5. 求乞、乞討。 例：化緣、募化
  6. 置於名詞或形容詞之後，表示轉變成某種狀態或性質。 例：綠化、電氣化、現代化

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

How 化 was written 字形演變

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