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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

如

rú
to be like; as; as if; as though
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 女
  • 6 strokes

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Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *nja, *njas): phonetic 女 (OC *naʔ, *nas, “woman”) + semantic 口 (“mouth”).

Sino-Tibetan; compare Mru [script needed] (na, “to be so”), Mizo na nâ nâ (“it being so; since”) (Schuessler, 2007). Also compare Old Mon [script needed] (ñaṅ, “resembling; like”) (ibid.).

Derivations include 若 (OC *nja, *njaʔ, *njaɡ, “as if”) (by the distributive suffix *-k), 諾 (OC *naːɡ, “to agree; to say yes”), and 然 (OC *njen, “so; thus; like this”) (by a demonstrative suffix *-n) (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymology 2

May be related to 向 (OC *hljaŋs, *hlaŋs, “to face; to turn towards”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese女 “woman; (only of humans in Standard Chinese) female”
  • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Related: Mizo na nâ nâ

Words built on it: 如果, 例如, 如何, 比如, 不如, 如今, 如此, 假如, 如下, 如同

Meanings

character
  1. to be like; as; as if; as though
  2. to comply with; to agree with; to fit
  3. such as; for example; for instance
  4. to be as good as; to be comparable to
  5. than; more than
  6. if; supposing

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

如：从隨也。从女从口。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 順從、依照。 例：如約、如期、如數
  2. 似同、好像。 例：如同、愛人如己、如花似玉
  3. 及、比得上。 例：遠親不如近鄰
  4. 往、至。 例：如廁
  5. 連詞。表假設。 例：假如、如果
  6. 詞綴。放在形容詞或副詞之後。相當於「然」，表示某種情形或狀況。 例：突如其來

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

How 如 was written 字形演變

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