源etymfun
About

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

底

dǐ
bottom; underneath; underside
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 广
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tiːlʔ): semantic 广 (“building”) + phonetic 氐 (OC *tiːl, *til) – the bottom or base, foundation of a building. Note that 氐, according to one interpretation, is a figure bowing or the root of a tree, hence a connotation of "down"; if the interpretation is correct, the phonetic component also adds part of the meaning.

Cognate with 低 (OC *tiːl, “to lower; low”), 柢 (OC *tiːl, *tiːlʔ, *tiːls, “root of a tree; base”).

Etymology 3

From 等 (MC tojX), probably a clipping or influenced by 何等 (OC *ɡaːl tɯːʔ/tɯːŋʔ).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese广 “house built to depend on a cliff”
  • soundChinese氐 “Di (ethnic group)”
    • componentChinese氏 “clan; family; lineage; hereditary house”
    • componentChinese一 “one”

Words built on it: 到底, 年底, 底下

Meanings

character
  1. bottom; underneath; underside
  2. ground; background
  3. ins and outs; actual situation
  4. master copy
  5. copy kept as a record
  6. end (of a year or month)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

底：山居也。一曰下也。从广氐聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 器物或物體的最下部分。 例：鞋底、碗底、海底
  2. 根源、內情。 例：謎底、揭底、追根究底
  3. 末了、盡頭。 例：年底、月底、巷底
  4. 草稿、原本。 例：存底、底稿、底本
  5. 基本組成部分。 例：班底、根底
  6. 剩下來的部分。 例：債底、菜底

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

How 底 was written 字形演變

  1. 底 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 底 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: 底