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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

平

píng
level; even; flat
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 干
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Uncertain. Various explanations include:

* According to the Shuowen, 八 (“division”) + 亏 (“exhaled air”) — the smooth flow of speech.

* Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ben, *beŋ): phonetic 釆 (biàn) + semantic 二 (“two equal lines”) (Lin Yiguang, 1920)

* A pictogram (象形) of waterweed spread flat on the surface of water. Original form of 苹 (OC *beŋ, “duckweed”). (Lawrence J. Howell)

* Pictogram (象形) of a balance scale. (Karlgren, 1973)

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(p/b)ljaŋ (“plank; palm; flat surface; wing”), whence Jingpho phun-pyen (phun⁵⁵ pjen³³, “plank”) and Burmese ပျဉ် (pyany, “flat board”) (STEDT). See also 餅 (OC *peŋʔ, “flatbread”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*(p/b)ljaŋ “plank; palm; flat surface; wing”
  • componentChinese八 “eight”
  • soundChinese釆 “to distinguish; to discriminate”
  • componentChinese亏 “exhaled air”
  • meaningChinese二 “two”

Related: Jingpho phun-pyen, Burmese ပျဉ်

Words built on it: 水平, 平等, 公平, 和平, 平安, 平均, 平常, 平原, 評, 平衡

Meanings

character
  1. level; even; flat
  2. equal; fair
  3. equal
  4. to level; to make level
  5. calm; peaceful
  6. to calm down; to make peaceful; to quiet down

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

平：語平舒也。从亏从八。八，分也。爰禮說。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 沒有凹凸、不傾斜的。 例：平坦、平地、平原
  2. 均等的、不分勝負的。 例：平均、平等、平手
  3. 安寧的、沒有戰爭的。 例：太平、心平氣和、風平浪靜
  4. 尋常的、普通的。 例：平日、平常、平淡無奇
  5. 使安定、征服。 例：平定、平息、平亂
  6. 壓抑。 例：怨氣難平

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

How 平 was written 字形演變

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