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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

差

chāi
to differ from; to be different; dissimilar; incongruous
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 工
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 來 (“wheat”) + 𠂇 (“left hand”) – to hull wheat by rubbing grains inside hands. Original form of 搓 (OC *sʰlaːl, “to rub with hands; to scrub; to twist”).

工 or 口 was later added under 𠂇 to form 左 (OC *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls, “left”), which is also this character's phonetic component.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese來 “to come; to arrive”
  • ideaChinese𠂇 “hand”

Related: Burmese ချာ

Words built on it: 差不多, 差距

Meanings

character
  1. to differ from; to be different; dissimilar; incongruous
  2. wrong; incorrect; erroneous
  3. inferior; poor; substandard
  4. difference; discrepancy
  5. mistake; wrongdoing
  6. difference

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

差：貳也。差不相值也。从左从𠂹。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 以兩手揉物或自相揉擦。通「搓」。 例：差沐

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

How 差 was written 字形演變

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