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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

專

zhuān
to monopolize; to take sole possession
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • radical 寸
  • 11 strokes
  • 剸
  • 𰄞

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tjon): phonetic 叀 (“spindle”) + semantic 又 (“hand”) – a hand turning a spindle or spinning wheel. It has come to mean to bundle several things together into one. Originally also written 叀.

The 又 was later replaced by related 寸.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese叀 “spindle; spinning wheel”
  • meaningChinese又 “again; once more”

Words built on it: 傳, 團, 轉

Meanings

character
  1. to monopolize; to take sole possession
  2. specific; special; exclusive
  3. expert; focused; concentrated
  4. to concentrate; to focus; mindfulness
  5. exclusively; specially; solely
  6. deliberately; on purpose

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

專：六寸簿也。从寸叀聲。一曰專，紡專。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 純一、誠篤。 例：專一、專心、專注
  2. 單獨、特別的。 例：專精、專門、專案
  3. 獨占、把持。 例：專政、專權、專利

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

How 專 was written 字形演變

  1. 專 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 專 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 專 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 專 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 專