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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

布

bù
cloth; textiles (Classifier: 匹; 塊／块)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 巾
  • 5 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *paːs): phonetic 父 (OC *paʔ, *baʔ) + semantic 巾 (“kerchief”).

;"to spread out" (tr.)

;"cloth"

:Additionally, Schuessler suggests that the Austroasiatic word was the source of Sanskrit कर्पास (karpāsa) & Ancient Greek κάρπασος (kárpasos). Still, earlier Johnson & Decker (1980) stated that "the problem of etymological origin of karpāsa has not been resolved".

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese父 “father (male parent)”
  • meaningChinese巾 “a square item of cloth; towel; kerchief”

Related: Sanskrit कर्पास, Ancient Greek κάρπασος

Words built on it: 宣布, 公布

Meanings

character
  1. cloth; textiles (Classifier: 匹; 塊／块)
  2. to announce; to proclaim
  3. to spread
  4. to deploy; to set out
  5. a surname
  6. Used in transcription.

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

布：枲織也。从巾父聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 棉、麻或絲綢等織品的總稱。 例：棉布、紗布、布帛
  2. 宣告、陳述。 例：發布、宣布、開誠布公
  3. 設置、陳設。 例：布局、布署、布下圈套
  4. 分散、散布。 例：遍布、烏雲密布、星羅棋布
  5. 古代的一種貨幣。 例：泉布、刀布
  6. 姓。

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

How 布 was written 字形演變

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