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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

弱

ruò
weak; feeble
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 弓
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 弓 (“bow”) + 彡 (“hair, meaning "decoration" in this case”)—a decorative bow that is functionally inferior. Or it might be indicating that the bow is shaking, which implies a worn-out bow.

An alternate etymology is 𢎥 + 𢎥, 𢎥 being a variant of 卷.

Probably cognate with 柔 (OC *mlju, “soft”), see there for more (STEDT).

Schuessler (2007; p. 448) and Hill (2019; p. 21) compare this word to Tibetan ཉོག་ཉོང (nyog nyong, “soft, weak”). Hill also adds Burmese ညက် (nyak, “to be smooth”) to the comparison. From this, one can reconstruct Proto-Sino-Tibetan *njewk.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*njewk
  • ideaChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
  • ideaChinese彡 “hair”

Related: Tibetan ཉོག་ཉོང, Burmese ညက်

Meanings

character
  1. weak; feeble
  2. fragile; delicate

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

弱：橈也。上象橈曲，彡象毛氂橈弱也。弱物并，故从二𢎥。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 體力或能力等單薄、不強盛。與「強」相對。 例：軟弱、弱國、體弱多病
  2. 輕微、程度不強的。 例：微弱、弱酸
  3. 年少的。 例：弱齡
  4. 表數量不足。 例：十分之一弱

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

How 弱 was written 字形演變

  1. 弱 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 弱 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 弱 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 弱