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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

嚴

yán
strict; rigorous; rigid
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 口
  • 20 strokes
  • ⿱吅厂

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ŋam): semantic 喦 (“talkative”) + phonetic 敢 (OC *klaːmʔ, “daring”) – the original script of 譀 (OC *qʰlaːms, *qʰraːms, *qʰraːb, “exaggerated and absurd words”).

The meanings of “solemn” and “stern” may be a result of phonetic borrowing.

Schuessler (2007) considers 嚴 (OC *ŋam) to be cognate with the following:

* 巖 (OC *ŋraːm, “(of mountains) high; lofty”)

* 儼 (OC *ŋamʔ, “dignified; majestic”)

* 險 (OC *qʰramʔ, “precipitous; dangerous”)

* 業 (OC *ŋab, “lofty; large”) (an allofam with a stop final).

They are all Sino-Tibetan in origin. Cognates in Tibetan include Tibetan རྔམ་པ་ (rngam pa, “splendor; majesty”) and Tibetan རྔམས (rngams, “height; splendor”). Burmese ငြမ်း (ngram:, “scaffold”) may also be a cognate.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese喦 “talkative”
  • soundChinese敢 “bold; brave; daring”

Related: Tibetan རྔམ་པ་, Tibetan རྔམས, Burmese ငြမ်း

Words built on it: 嚴重

Meanings

character
  1. strict; rigorous; rigid
  2. solemn; majestic; stately; grave
  3. urgent; pressing
  4. severe; intense
  5. tight
  6. to respect

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

嚴：教命急也。从吅𠪚聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 苛刻、不放鬆。 例：嚴格、嚴厲、嚴禁
  2. 肅穆、端莊。 例：莊嚴、嚴肅
  3. 緊急、急迫。 例：事態嚴重
  4. 周密。 例：嚴密、謹嚴
  5. 厲害、猛烈。 例：嚴冬、嚴刑拷打
  6. 警戒、戒備時所施行的非常措施。 例：解嚴、戒嚴

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

How 嚴 was written 字形演變

  1. 嚴 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 嚴 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 嚴 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 嚴 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: 嚴