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

府

/fu²¹⁴/
government repository
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *poʔ): semantic 广 (“building”) + phonetic 付 (OC *pos) – a type of building.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese广 “house built to depend on a cliff”
  • derivedChinese奠邊 “Điện Biên Province (a province of Vietnam)”
    • derivedChinese奠 “to set; to lay; to place down (typically in ceremonial contexts)”
      • derivedChinese邊 “edge; side; margin; brim”
  • soundChinese付 “to give; to deliver; to hand over”
    • ideaChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    • ideaChinese又 “again; once more”
    • ideaChinese寸 “Legally defined as the tsun of 3.71475 cm.”

Words built on it: 政府

Meanings

character
  1. government repository
  2. warehouse; storehouse; stores
  3. organs of state power
  4. official residence
  5. your residence
  6. province of Thailand

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

府：文書藏也。从广付聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 舊時官府儲藏文書或財物的地方。 例：書府、祕府、府庫
  2. 官署，官員辦公的地方。 例：官府、首府、縣政府
  3. 古代介於省、縣間的地方行政機構。 例：開封府、徐州府
  4. 舊時達官顯貴的住所。 例：王府、相爺府
  5. 尊稱別人的家庭或居處。 例：尊府、貴府、閤府光臨

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

How 府 was written 字形演變

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