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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

常

cháng
normal; general; common
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 巾
  • 11 strokes
  • 荍
  • 荞

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *djaŋ): phonetic 尚 (OC *djaŋ, *djaŋs) + semantic 巾 (“cloth”).

The character originally referred to a "lower garment" similar to a skirt, before being phonetically borrowed to mean "long-lasting; frequently". The original sense is now represented by the character 裳 (OC *djaŋ, “lower garment”).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan; perhaps related to Tibetan ཡང (yang, “again, once more”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese尚 “still; yet”
    • meaningChinese八 “eight”
    • soundChinese向 “to face”
      • ideaChinese宀 “a type of deep house with walls on all four sides, a roof, a main hall, and back rooms”
      • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • meaningChinese巾 “a square item of cloth; towel; kerchief”

Related: Tibetan ཡང

Words built on it: 非常, 常常, 正常, 通常, 日常, 平常, 常用

Meanings

character
  1. normal; general; common
  2. constant; invariable; continuous; always
  3. long-lasting; enduring
  4. often; frequently
  5. law and order
  6. law; rule; regular pattern

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

常：下帬也。从巾尚聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 恆久不變的規律。 例：倫常、三綱五常
  2. 普通的、一般的。 例：平常、常識、常情
  3. 長久固定不變的、規律的、定期的。 例：常規、常駐、常會
  4. 時時、一次又一次，表示頻繁的意思。 例：時常、老生常談
  5. 姓。

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

How 常 was written 字形演變

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