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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

它

/tʰä⁵⁵/
third-person singular pronoun for inanimate objects; it
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 宀
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Originally a pictogram representing a snake, the character is now the basis for the derivative 蛇. The Shuowen Jiezi glosses the character as a type of insect, describing it as having a long, winding body with a drooping tail.

Through a process of phonetic borrowing (jiajie), the character was later used to represent a third-person pronoun that was homophonous with the original word. While it once served as a general third-person pronoun, modern usage distinguishes between 他 (tā) for male or unspecified subjects and 她 (tā) for female subjects. The character appears in oracle, bronze, chu, qin, seal, and regular scripts.

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

「它」最初是象形字，描繪的是蛇。根據《說文解字》的記載，此字從「虫」部，形狀像是彎曲且帶有尾巴的樣子。在古代，這個字後來透過假借的方式，被用作當時發音相同的第三人稱代詞。現在的「蛇」字則是從「它」衍生而來的字。

在字義發展上，「它」可作為第三人稱單數代詞，用來指代非人類的動物、植物或事物，亦可作為泛指的第三人稱代詞。此外，根據《國語辭典》，這個字也有「另外的」之意。在代詞的使用演變中，原本由「它」承擔的部分功能，後來由「他」（指男性或不特定性別）與「她」（指女性）所分擔。

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

Lineage

Words built on it: 它們, 蛇, 拖

Wiktionary etymology text

Pictogram (象形): a snake. This is now written as the derivative 蛇 (OC *l̥ʰaːl, *ɦljaːl, *lal).

Jiajie (假借): the character was later borrowed for the then-homophonous third-person pronoun (“he/she/it”). Today 他 (tā) is used for male or gender-unspecified “he” and 她 (tā) for “she”.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. third-person singular pronoun for inanimate objects; it
  2. third-person singular pronoun for animals; it
  3. general third-person singular pronoun; he; she; they (singular); it
  4. A dummy pronoun.
  5. crooked; evil
  6. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

它：虫也。从虫而長，象冤曲垂尾形。上古艸居患它，故相問無它乎。凡它之屬皆从它。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 第三人稱代詞。代指人以外的動物、植物或事物。
  2. 別的、另外的。 例：它山之石、敢有它志

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

How 它 was written 字形演變

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