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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

千

qiān
thousand
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 十
  • 3 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sn̥ʰiːn): semantic 一 (“one, signifying a number”) + phonetic 人 (OC *njin). The Old Chinese pronunciations of 千 (OC *sn̥ʰiːn) and 人 (OC *njin) were similar. For the component 人, compare its combining form 亻.

The traditional explanation holds that the extra line indicates an extension (see the etymologies of 年 and 延). 千 has the meaning one thousand because one thousand is a number that is reached by extending one's counting.

Unclear. Schuessler (2007) notes similar forms in Mon-Khmer, though their initials and finals do not match Old Chinese; compare Vietnamese nghìn and Old Mon lṅim (whence Mon လ္ၚီ (ŋìm)), all meaning "thousand". Also compare Proto-Hlai *C-ŋin.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese一 “one”
  • soundChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”

Related: Vietnamese nghìn, Old Mon lṅim, Mon လ္ၚီ, Proto-Hlai *C-ŋin

Words built on it: 升

Meanings

character
  1. thousand
  2. many; numerous
  3. to swindle; to defraud
  4. fortuitous; coincidental; opportune

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

千：十百也。从十从人。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 數目字。十的百倍。大寫作「仟」。
  2. 眾多。 例：千方百計、千山萬水

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

How 千 was written 字形演變

  1. 千 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 千 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 千 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 千 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 千 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 千 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: 千