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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

很

hěn
very; extremely; in a high degree
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 彳
  • 9 strokes

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Origin

The character 很 is a phono-semantic compound. It consists of the semantic component 彳, meaning "to walk slowly," and the phonetic component 艮 (reconstructed as *kɯːns). The component 艮 is one of the Eight Trigrams, symbolizing mountains, and contains the components 目 (eye) and 人 (man; person; people).

According to the Shuowen Jiezi, the character means to not obey, or alternatively, that walking is difficult, or to be 盭. While the character originally related to being cruel, disobeying, defying, or being querulous, its meaning shifted to "very," "quite," or "in a high degree" during the Yuan dynasty. This usage is comparable to 蠻 (mán).

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「很」在字形構成上屬於形聲字。其意符為「彳」，象徵「緩慢行走」；聲符為「艮」，在八卦中象徵山（☶）。根據對「艮」字的拆解，其包含「目」與「人」兩個組成部分。在原始漢語的構詞中，其構建形式被重建為 *ɡɯːnʔ，而聲符「艮」的構建形式則被重建為 *kɯːns。

在意義的演變上，該字最初與「殘忍（狠）」、「不聽從」或「違抗」有關，後來自元代起，其意義轉向表示程度高，意指「非常」或「甚」。此一演變過程可與「蠻」字進行比較。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese彳 “to walk slowly”
  • soundChinese艮 “one of the Eight Trigrams 八卦, symbolizing mountains. (☶)”
    • ideaChinese目 “eye (Classifier: 雙／双 mn-t)”
    • ideaChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
Wiktionary etymology text

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡɯːnʔ): semantic 彳 + phonetic 艮 (OC *kɯːns).

“Cruel (~ 狠); to disobey; to defy” > “very; quite” (since Yuan dynasty). Compare 蠻／蛮 (mán).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. very; extremely; in a high degree
  2. (no meaning, see usage note)
  3. to disobey; to defy; to be querulous
  4. struggle; dispute; lawsuit
  5. to try to one's utmost

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

很：不聽从也。一曰行難也。一曰盭也。从彳𥃩聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 甚、非常，表示程度高。 例：這場午後雷陣雨很快就停了。

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

How 很 was written 字形演變

  1. 很 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 很 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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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: 很