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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

圍

wéi
to surround; to encircle; to corral
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 囗
  • 12 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Originally written as 韋 (“to surround”). Now phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɢʷɯl, *ɢʷɯls): semantic 囗 (“enclosure”) + phonetic 韋 (OC *ɢʷɯl).

Likely borrowed from some reflex of Proto-Mon-Khmer *wil (“to turn”). Compare Khmer វិល (vɨl, “to revolve”), Burmese ဝေ့ (we., “to whirl around”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese囗 “box, enclosure”
  • soundChinese韋 “tanned leather”
    • ideaChinese舛 “to be opposed to; to be contrary to; to deviate from”
      • ideaChinese夊 “of going, slow”
      • ideaChinese𡕒

Related: Proto-Mon-Khmer *wil, Khmer វិល, Burmese ဝေ့

Meanings

character
  1. to surround; to encircle; to corral
  2. all sides
  3. girth
  4. walled village (Classifier: 條／条 c)
  5. Classifier for number of tables at a restaurant or a feast. (usually twelve people per table)
  6. to tally; to calculate (an amount)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

圍：守也。从囗韋聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 環繞、包攏困住。 例：圍繞、包圍、圍攻
  2. 四周、周邊的大小長度。 例：周圍、外圍
  3. 遮蔽用的布類。 例：床圍、轎圍
  4. 量詞

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

How 圍 was written 字形演變

  1. 圍 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 圍 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 圍 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 圍 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 圍 in Clerical script
    Clerical
    隸書
    Han
  6. 圍 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: 圍