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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

度

dù
linear measure; size; measures
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 广
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *daːɡs, *daːɡ): phonetic 石 (OC *djaɡ, “rock”) + semantic 又 (“hand”). Duan Yucai argues that the presence of the hand component in this character is because the hand was used as a reference for measurement. 石 is then corrupted into 𲟁.

Shuowen considers it to be a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *daːɡs, *daːɡ): phonetic 庶 (OC *hljaɡs) + semantic 又.

Compare 庶 (OC *hljaɡs) and 席 (OC *ljaːɡ).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-twa (“handspan”). Cognate with Tibetan མཐོ (mtho, “span; span of thumb and middle finger”), Burmese ထွာ (htwa, “to measure by a handspan; a quarter yard”), အထွာ (a.htwa, “handspan; quarter yard”), တွက် (twak, “to consider, to reckon; to calculate; to refuse to do things because others would not”), အတွက် (a.twak, “calculation; because of; for the sake of”). It is unclear whether Proto-Mon-Khmer *cɗaʔ (“span; handspan”) (whence Mon ဍ (daˀ, “to measure by spans of thumb and middle finger”)) is related. Related to 圖 (OC *daː, “to plan; to consider; plan; map”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m-twa “handspan”
  • soundChinese石 “stone; rock (Classifier: 嚿 c; 塊／块 c)”
  • soundChinese庶 “numerous; many”
    • componentChinese广 “house built to depend on a cliff”
    • meaningChinese火 “fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)”
    • componentChinese炗 “light”
  • meaningChinese又 “again; once more”

Related: Tibetan མཐོ, Burmese ထွာ, Proto-Mon-Khmer *cɗaʔ, Mon ဍ

Words built on it: 制度, 程度, 速度, 角度, 高度, 年度, 深度

Meanings

character
  1. linear measure; size; measures
  2. 52nd tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "measure" (𝌹)
  3. consideration; thought; expectation
  4. law; standard; rule; convention
  5. extent; limit; quota
  6. tolerance; open-mindedness

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

度：法制也。从又，庶省聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 考慮、推測。 例：審度、揣度
  2. 測量。 例：量度

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

How 度 was written 字形演變

  1. 度 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 度 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 度 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 度 in Clerical script
    Clerical
    隸書
    Han
  5. 度 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: 度