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

四

sì
four
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 囗
  • 5 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

Pictogram (象形): a nose exhaling. Original form of 呬 (OC *hrids). Later phonetically borrowed to represent 四 (OC *hljids, “four”).

The word "four" was written as 亖 before Western Zhou and 四 appeared in late Spring and Autumn period. This alternative form was used to prevent confusion of 亖 and 二 (“two”) or 三 (“three”) in vertical writing. It was standardized in Qin dynasty.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pV-lij.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*pV-lij “four”

Meanings

character
  1. four
  2. in or from the four directions
  3. la (musical note)
  4. English; The size of type between 小四 (little 4) and 小三 (little 3), standardized as 14 point.

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

四：陰數也。象四分之形。凡四之屬皆从四。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 介於三和五之間的自然數。大寫作「肆」，阿拉伯數字作「4」。 例：三、四、五、六……。
  2. 第四的。 例：四年級、四更天、四品官
  3. 多方面的。 例：四平八穩、四通八達

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

How 四 was written 字形演變

  1. 四 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 四 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 四 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 四 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 四 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 四 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 四