Chinese

垃圾

/lä⁵⁵ t͡ɕi⁵⁵/
garbage; rubbish; trash; waste; refuse; junk
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 4

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

From earlier 擸𢶍 (làsà, “to jumble; jumble; litter”). Reduplication derived from a root (*lap or *sap) meaning "untidy, unclean". The pronunciation "lèsè" is possibly influenced by Wu.

Second syllable of the Mainland Mandarin reading lājī is irregular, resulting from the incorrect association of the rare character in its obsolete form 靸 (sǎ) with the usual pronunciation of its phonetic component (及 (jí)).

Cognate with 邋遢 (lāta, “unclean, untidy, unkempt”) (> 邋邋遢遢, 邋裡邋遢／邋里邋遢).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • characterChinese垃 “only used in 垃圾 (lājī)”
  • characterChinese圾 “only used in 垃圾 (lājī, “garbage; rubbish”)”

Sources