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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

太

tài
too; so (modifying adjectives; often used with 了 (le) at the end of the sentence for emphasis)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 大
  • 4 strokes

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Origin

The character 太 is a phono-semantic compound and a differentiated form of 大 (reconstructed as *daːds, “big; great”). It was formed by adding the component 丶 to 大 to represent the meaning of being too big (reconstructed as *tʰaːds). This character is a superlative derivative of 大, signifying something that is excessive, very great, or of the highest degree.

In usage, the character can describe an extreme degree, often used in affirmative contexts to mean very or quite, or in negative contexts to mean too much. It can also mean the greatest or the utmost. It is a cognate of the Korean 太. The oldest attested scripts for this character include chu, seal, and regular scripts.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「太」屬於形聲字，是「大」（中古音 *daːds）的變體。其構造是在「大」的基礎上增加了一個「丶」點，用來表示「太」（中古音 *tʰaːds）具有「太大」的意思。這種構造方式與「泰」字相似，後者則是增加了「廾」與「水」作為變體。

根據最早的文字紀錄，該字已見於楚、篆、楷等書體。在語義上，「太」代表著程度的極致，包含過甚、極大或最高程度。此外，「太」與韓語中的「太」互為同源詞。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

Related: Korean 太#bean

Words built on it: 太太, 太空

Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): a differentiated form of 大 (OC *daːds, *daːds, “big; great”) with a 丶 added to represent 太 (OC *tʰaːds, “too big”).

Compare 泰, which is also a differentiated form with 廾 and 水 added instead.

A superlative derivative of 大 (OC *daːds, *daːds, “big”) – be too great, very great, excessive.

Etymology 2

See Korean 太.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. too; so (modifying adjectives; often used with 了 (le) at the end of the sentence for emphasis)
  2. very; quite
  3. most; utmost
  4. highest; greatest
  5. senior; noble
  6. great-

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 過甚。 例：太多、太熱、太重
  2. 形容程度極高，多用於肯定方面。 例：太偉大了、太好了
  3. 很，多用於否定方面。 例：不太好、不太妙
  4. 極、大。 例：太始、太空
  5. 尊稱尊長之尊長或尊貴者之尊長。 例：太老師、太夫人、太老伯
  6. 稱謂

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

How 太 was written 字形演變

  1. 太 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 太 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 太 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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 太