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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

合

hé
to close; to shut
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 口
  • 6 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 亼 + 口 (“mouth”) : Two mouths speaking together. See also 會.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *gap ~ kap. Compare 蓋 (OC *kaːbs, *kaːb, *ɡaːb, “to cover”), 盍 (OC *ɡaːb, “to unite”) (STEDT), 盒 (OC *ɡuːb, “box, case”). Outside of Sinitic, possibly cognate with Burmese ကပ် (kap, “to approach”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese亼 “mouth”
    • ideaChinese入 “to enter; to go into”
    • ideaChinese一 “one”
  • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Words built on it: 會, 拿, 給, 合作, 配合, 合法, 符合, 合理, 合格, 哈, 合同, 集合

Meanings

character
  1. to close; to shut
  2. to join; to combine; to unite; to bring together
  3. to suit; to fit
  4. to have sexual intercourse
  5. to fight, to have a confrontation with
  6. to add up to; to be equivalent to; to amount to

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

合：合口也。从亼从口。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 將離散的部分聚集在一起。與「分」相對。 例：集合、聚合
  2. 關閉。 例：合眼、合不上嘴
  3. 全部、整個。 例：合家平安、合鄉稱頌
  4. 相符、不違背。 例：合法、合身、合意
  5. 折算。 例：五臺斤合三公斤。
  6. 應該、應當。 例：合該

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

How 合 was written 字形演變

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