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

工

gōng
labour; work (Classifier: 份 c)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • radical 工
  • 3 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

Pictogram (象形) – a bladed tool to plow the ground and to mark a border. As an alternative, a carpenter's square; according to the second interpretation, the character is related to the original meaning of 巨.

Unrelated to 巠 > 𢀖 and 壬.

An area word; compare Burmese ခိုင်း (hkuing:, “to order or ask someone to do something”), Old Mon kloñ (kloɲ, “to work”), Old Mon klon (klon, “to have charge of cultivation”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymologically the same word as 功 (OC *koːŋ, “merit; achievement”) and 攻 (OC *koːŋ, *kuːŋ, “to attack”). The senses evolved in the following manner: 工 (“work, artisan”) > 功 (“merit; achievement”); 工 (“to work”) > 攻 (“to attack”) (ibid.).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese二 “two”
  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”

Related: Burmese ခိုင်း, Old Mon kloñ, Old Mon klon

Words built on it: 工作, 工人, 紅, 工具, 工程, 項, 打工, 左, 空, 加工, 人工, 江

Meanings

character
  1. labour; work (Classifier: 份 c)
  2. work; job; profession (Classifier: 份 c)
  3. working day; daytime; a day (24 hours)
  4. worker; labourer
  5. man-day
  6. construction

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

工：巧飾也。象人有規榘也。與巫同意。凡工之屬皆从工。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 有專門技術或從事勞動生產的人。 例：木工、礦工、水電工
  2. 勞動、生產。 例：怠工、加工、上工
  3. 技巧。 例：雕工、唱工、巧奪天工
  4. 擅長。 例：工於心計
  5. 精緻、巧妙。 例：工麗、工致、工整
  6. 工業、工程的簡稱。 例：化工、竣工、施工

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

How 工 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 工