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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

康

kāng
peaceful and happy; tranquil
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • radical 广
  • 11 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 庚 (“threshing tools”) + 米 (“rice”) – chaff. The clearest version is 𢊪, in which the two components can be identified well; in the semi-conservative variant 𥹺, the rice at the bottom is still well visible. The derivative 糠 refers to the original word.

Unrelated to 隶, in which the bottom part is a reference to a tail (毛); also unrelated to 水.

; quiet, calm, peaceful

; Kham

; "to look, to see"

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese庚 “age”
  • ideaChinese米 “hulled or husked uncooked rice (Classifier: 粒 m c mn; 顆／颗 m)”

Words built on it: 健康

Meanings

character
  1. peaceful and happy; tranquil
  2. healthy; well; strong
  3. prosperous; plentiful; abundant
  4. broad; vast; smooth; level
  5. hollow; empty
  6. original form of 糠 (kāng, “chaff; husk”)

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 平安、安定。 例：安康、康樂、康寧
  2. 豐足、富裕。 例：小康、康年
  3. 通達的、平坦的。 例：康莊大道
  4. 姓。

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

How 康 was written 字形演變

  1. 康 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 康 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 康 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 康 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 康 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 康 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 康