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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

實

shí
full; fulfilled; substantial; rich
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • radical 宀
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 宀 (“roof”) + 周 (“carved jade”) + 貝 (“shellfish; cowrie”).

The two lower components of 周 and 貝 had combined to form 貫 (OC *koːn, *koːns, “string of cowries”), hence the incorrect analysis in Shuowen Jiezi of this character as 宀 + 貫.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese宀 “a type of deep house with walls on all four sides, a roof, a main hall, and back rooms”
  • ideaChinese周 “to circle; to encircle”
  • componentChinese貫 “a string of one thousand coins”
  • ideaChinese貝 “shellfish; cowrie”

Words built on it: 其實

Meanings

character
  1. full; fulfilled; substantial; rich
  2. to fill; to load; to stuff
  3. real; true
  4. truth; fact; substance; reality
  5. honest
  6. solid

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

實：富也。从宀从貫。貫，貨貝也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 充滿。 例：充實、實心
  2. 真確、確切的。與「虛」相對。 例：實情、實話、誠實無欺
  3. 事實、真相。 例：傳聞失實、名實相副
  4. 充足、富裕。 例：殷實、國實民富
  5. 植物所結的種子或果子。 例：果實、結實纍纍

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

How 實 was written 字形演變

  1. 實 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 實 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 實 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 實 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 實 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: 實