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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

張

zhāng
to string a bow; to pull a bowstring taut
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 弓
  • 11 strokes
  • 當
  • 当

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *taŋ, *taŋs): semantic 弓 (“bow”) + phonetic 長 (OC *taŋʔ, *daŋ, *daŋs).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g/m/b-raŋ (“strong; firm; tense”) or Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(d/t)aŋ (“tense; tight”), the latter which appears to be preferred based on more current research (Hill, 2019, p. 224); compare Tibetan ཐང་པོ (thang po, “tense; tight; firm”), Burmese တင်း (tang:, “to tighten; to be tight”).

Pronunciation 2 is the exopassive of pronunciation 1, literally “to be stretched” (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*g/m/b-raŋ “strong; firm; tense”
    • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*(d/t)aŋ “tense; tight”
  • meaningChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
  • soundChinese長 “long (of distance)”

Related: Tibetan ཐང་པོ, Burmese တင်း

Words built on it: 漲

Meanings

character
  1. to string a bow; to pull a bowstring taut
  2. to stretch; to open up; to spread
  3. to expand; to spread
  4. to set out; to display
  5. to look
  6. to start; to open for business

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

張：施弓弦也。从弓長聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 展開。 例：張口、張大
  2. 擴大、誇大。 例：聲張、虛張聲勢、明目張膽
  3. 看、窺探。 例：東張西望
  4. 量詞。(1) 計算某些可張開物體的單位。 例：一張弓、兩張嘴　(2) 計算平面物品的單位。[例]一張紙、兩張桌子、三張薄餅
  5. 姓。

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

How 張 was written 字形演變

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