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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

可

kě
can; may; be able to
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 口
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kʰaːlʔ): semantic 口 + phonetic 丂 (OC *kʰluːʔ) with a reference to exhaled air. Perhaps its original meaning was "to sing", then 訶 and 哥 (可 written twice).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-kal ~ *s-gal (“back (lower); kidney; load; carry”) (STEDT). Cognate with 荷 (OC *qʰaːls, *ɡaːl, *ɡaːlʔ, “to carry”). See there for more.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m-kal ~ *s-gal “back (lower); kidney; load; carry”
  • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • soundChinese丂 “the appearance of air which is to be released”
    • componentChinese𠃑
    • componentChinese一 “one”

Words built on it: 可以, 可能, 哥, 河, 可是, 可怕, 可靠, 可惜, 何, 阿, 奇

Meanings

character
  1. can; may; be able to
  2. to approve; to permit
  3. to fit; suit
  4. to be worth doing
  5. but; however
  6. Used to form a question.

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

可：𦘫也。从口丂，丂亦聲。凡可之屬皆从可。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. →可汗

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

How 可 was written 字形演變

  1. 可 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 可 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 可 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 可 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 可 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 可 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 可