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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

夢

mèng
dream (Classifier: 場／场 m c mn; 個／个 m c mn)
  • pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 夕
  • 14 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

In the Oracle bone script, a pictogram (象形) or ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) – a person (人) lying on a bed (爿), sometimes with restless hands (compare the oracle-bone character for 丮) and sometimes with the eye (目) emphasized.

In the Bronze inscriptions, the eye (目) has eyebrows above it (compare 眉), and the person's body is attached underneath, now written as two dots on either side. The bed is no longer present, and instead 夕 (“moon; night”) has been added.

In the modern form 夢, the eyebrows are written 卝, the eyes are written 罒, and the person's body has become 冖, while 夕 remains on the bottom.

According to Shuowen, it is a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *mɯŋ, *mɯŋs): phonetic 瞢 (OC *mɯːŋ, *mɯŋ, *mɯŋs) + semantic 夕.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(s/r)-ma(ŋ/k) (“dream”); compare Tibetan རྨང་ལམ (rmang lam, “dream”), Chepang माङः (“dream”), Proto-Lolo-Burmese *s-makᴴ ~ *s-maŋ¹ (“dream”), Mizo mang (“dream”), Japhug tɯ-jmŋo (“dream”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007; Zhang, Jacques and Lai, 2019).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*(s/r)-ma(ŋ/k) “dream”
  • soundChinese瞢 “to feel ashamed (Non-classical form of 懜／懵 (měng))”
  • meaningChinese夕 “night; evening; dusk”

Related: Tibetan རྨང་ལམ, Chepang माङः, Proto-Lolo-Burmese *s-makᴴ ~ s-maŋ¹, Mizo mang, Japhug tɯ-jmŋo

Meanings

character
  1. dream (Classifier: 場／场 m c mn; 個／个 m c mn)
  2. to dream; to have dreams
  3. dream; aspiration; ambition; goal
  4. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

夢：不明也。从夕，瞢省聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 睡眠時因腦部的意識活動，而引起的幻覺、幻像。 例：夢境
  2. 作夢。 例：昨晚我夢到自己考上大學，爸媽高興得不得了。
  3. 不切實際的幻想、想像。 例：白日夢、夢中情人

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

How 夢 was written 字形演變

  1. 夢 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 夢 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 夢 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 夢 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 夢 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: 夢