源etymfun
About

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

呼

hū
to breathe out; to exhale; to sigh
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 口
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *qʰaː): semantic 口 (“mouth”) + phonetic 乎 (OC *ɢaː) – to exhale, call, or shout from the mouth.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ʔaːw (“to shout, cry out”). Cognate with Burmese အော် (au, “to shout, berate”), as well as with the following Sinitic words (STEDT):

* 嚆 (“to make noise”)

* 嚎 (“to howl, bawl”)

* 呴 (OC *qʰoːʔ, *qʰos, “to breathe on, yawn, roar”)

* 呵 (OC *qʰaːl, *qʰaːls, “to shout, cry out”)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*ʔaːw “to shout, cry out”
  • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • soundChinese乎 “in; at; on”
    • soundChinese丂 “the appearance of air which is to be released”
      • componentChinese𠃑
      • componentChinese一 “one”

Related: Burmese အော်

Words built on it: 呼吸

Meanings

character
  1. to breathe out; to exhale; to sigh
  2. to shout; to yell
  3. to call (someone); to address
  4. howling
  5. medial; in Middle Chinese: being open-mouthed (開口／开口) or closed-mouthed (合口), also called 開合／开合); or, for modern Chinese: one of four medials (四呼)
  6. a surname: Hu

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

呼：外息也。从口乎聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 經口或鼻將氣體排出體外。與「吸」相對。 例：呼氣
  2. 大聲吶喊。 例：呼嘯、呼口號、大聲疾呼
  3. 招、叫。 例：呼朋引伴、呼風喚雨、直呼其名
  4. 嘆詞。表示感嘆的語氣。 例：嗚呼

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

How 呼 was written 字形演變

  1. 呼 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 呼 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 呼 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: 呼