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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

展

zhǎn
to open; to unfold
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • radical 尸
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tenʔ, *tens): semantic 尸 + abbreviated phonetic 𧝑, which has a variant 𧝣; the original version is 㞡. The phonetic component is a reference to fine red silk clothes, one of the six garments worn by the queen in the Rites of Zhou, and it contains as well a reference to the concept of "opening, extending; watch carefully" in the component 㠭.

Similar but unrelated to 昔 and 共.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-dal (“spread; extend; develop”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese尸 “a living person who represents the dead person during a rite”
  • soundChinese𧝑

Words built on it: 展示, 發展

Meanings

character
  1. to open; to unfold
  2. to stretch; to extend
  3. to postpone; to delay
  4. to exhibit; to display
  5. to give free play to; to display freely (abilities, etc.)
  6. exhibition; show; public display

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

展：轉也。从尸，𧝑省聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 舒張開、使擴張。 例：展眉、展翅、舒展
  2. 放寬、延長。 例：展延、展緩、展期
  3. 施展。 例：一籌莫展
  4. 陳列。 例：展示、展覽、展出
  5. 姓。

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

How 展 was written 字形演變

  1. 展 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 展 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: 展