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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

帥

/ʂu̯aɪ̯⁵¹/
to command; to lead (and give orders to); to designate
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 巾
  • 9 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 寻 (“two hands”) + 巾 (“scarf”) - to wear a scarf. Shuowen Jiezi interprets it as Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sruds, *srud): phonetic 𠂤 (*C.tˤuj) + semantic 巾.

Also written as 率 (OC *sruds, *rud, *srud, “to lead”); both represent the s-causative of 律 (OC *rud, “to follow”). Cognate with Tibetan སྲིད (srid, “commander, leader”).

For the surname, this is derived by removing a stroke of 師／师 (shī), which is the name of Sima Shi (司馬師／司马师), posthumously Emperor Jing of Jin (晉景帝／晋景帝).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese寻 “two hands”
    • componentChinese又 “again; once more”
    • componentChinese寸 “Legally defined as the tsun of 3.71475 cm.”
  • soundChinese𠂤 “ancient form of 師 (“troops”)”
  • ideaChinese巾 “a square item of cloth; towel; kerchief”

Related: Tibetan སྲིད

Meanings

character
  1. to command; to lead (and give orders to); to designate
  2. to lead; to guide
  3. role model; example
  4. to follow; to adhere to
  5. rapid; sharp; sudden
  6. commander-in-chief; marshal

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

帥：佩巾也。从巾、𠂤。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 軍隊中職級最高的指揮官。 例：統帥、元帥、帥旗
  2. 面容俊俏的或舉止瀟灑的、有風度的。 例：帥氣、帥哥
  3. 事情美好，令人滿意的表示。 例：帥啊！好一支再見全壘打！
  4. 姓。

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

How 帥 was written 字形演變

  1. 帥 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 帥 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 帥 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 帥 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 帥 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: 帥