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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

友

yǒu
friend; companion
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • radical 又
  • 4 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɢʷɯʔ): phonetic 又 (OC *ɢʷɯs) + phonetic 又 (OC *ɢʷɯs)

Shuowen: two hands, therefore friendship.

Endoactive derivation of 右 (OC *ɢʷɯʔ, “right”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Traditionally considered cognate with Tibetan གྲོགས (grogs, “friend; companion”) (STEDT). Schuessler rejects this comparison, believing that the -r- is the initial of a root instead of the g-, and thus that any Chinese cognate of the Tibetan word must also have an initial *r (which 友 does not have).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese又 “again; once more”

Related: Tibetan གྲོགས

Words built on it: 朋友, 小朋友, 友好, 女朋友, 男朋友, 好友, 老朋友

Meanings

character
  1. friend; companion
  2. to make friends with
  3. to love each other
  4. friendly
  5. guy; bloke (Classifier: 條／条 c; 班 c; 丁 c; 兜 c)
  6. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

友：同𢖽爲友。从二又。相交友也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 意氣相投、情誼互通的人。 例：好友、益友、至友
  2. 有友好關係的。 例：友軍、友邦
  3. 相好、親愛。 例：兄友弟恭
  4. 結交。 例：無友不如己者。（《論語．學而》）

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

How 友 was written 字形演變

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