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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

右

yòu
right (direction)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • radical 口
  • 5 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɢʷɯʔ, *ɢʷɯs): phonetic 又 (OC *ɢʷɯs) + semantic 口. Originally written as 又 as a phonetic loan in the oracle bone script; in bronze inscriptions, a meaningless 口 component was added as a distinguishing mark.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-(j/r)a (“right (hand)”) (STEDT). Cognate with Tibetan གཡས (g.yas, “right”), Jingpho hkra (khʒa⁵⁵, “right”), Burmese ယာ (ya), ညာ (nya).

友 (OC *ɢʷɯʔ, “be friendly; friend”) is the endoactive derivation of 右 (OC *ɢʷɯʔ) (Schuessler, 2007).

佑 (OC *ɢʷɯs, “to aid”), 祐 (OC *ɢʷɯs, “(of divinity) to assist; to bless”), 宥 (OC *ɢʷɯs, “to pardon; magnanimous”) are exoactive derivations of 右 (OC *ɢʷɯʔ) (ibid.).

; “(politics) right-wing”

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese又 “again; once more”
  • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Words built on it: 左右, 若

Meanings

character
  1. right (direction)
  2. above
  3. starboard
  4. west; areas to the west
  5. right side as the side of precedence
  6. right-wing

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

右：助也。从口从又。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 面朝北時，在東邊的方向、位置。與「左」相對。 例：右邊、右手、右轉　◎
  2. 地理位置上，指面向南時的西邊。與「左」相對。 例：隴右、江右
  3. 上位。 例：他的槍法神準，部隊裡無人能出其右。
  4. 政治思想屬保守的。與「左」相對。 例：右派、右傾

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

How 右 was written 字形演變

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