源etymfun
About

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

射

shè
to shoot (an arrow); to fire
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 寸
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

In the oracle bone script, an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 弓 (“bow”) + 矢 (“arrow”) – to shoot a bow. In the bronze inscriptions, a hand (又) drawing the bowstring was added. Hence, a conservative variant is 𢎤.

Later the bow and arrow on the left became 身 before or during the clerical script period, and the hand came to be written 寸.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mV-la(k) (“bow, arrow”); cognate with Tibetan མདའ (mda', “arrow”), Burmese မြား (mra:, “arrow”), Garo bra (“arrow”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007; Hill, 2013).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*mV-la(k) “bow, arrow”
  • ideaChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
  • ideaChinese矢 “arrow”

Related: Tibetan མདའ, Burmese မြား, Garo bra

Words built on it: 謝

Meanings

character
  1. to shoot (an arrow); to fire
  2. to launch; to eject; to project
  3. to emit; to radiate
  4. to guess
  5. to allude to
  6. to seek; to pursue

國語辭典 definitions

  1. →射干

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

How 射 was written 字形演變

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