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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

態

tài
condition; state
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • radical 心
  • 14 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *n̥ʰɯːs): phonetic 能 (OC *nɯː, *nɯːs, *nɯːŋ, *nɯːŋʔ) + semantic 心 (“heart”) – one’s heart-felt attitude.

Probably from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-nyaŋ (“can; be able to”); see 能 (OC *nɯː, *nɯːs, *nɯːŋ, *nɯːŋʔ, “able, capable”) for more.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • derivedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m-nyaŋ “can; be able to”
  • soundChinese能 “a kind of bear”
  • meaningChinese心 “heart (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 個／个 c; 粒 mn)”

Meanings

character
  1. condition; state
  2. form; shape
  3. manner; bearing; attitude
  4. situation; posture
  5. voice; diathesis

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

態：意也。从心从能。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 事物的情狀。 例：事態、形態、姿態
  2. 語法學上指通過句型語法形式表示行為動作與主體的關係。一般分為兩種：一、主動態：行為動作由主體發出；二、被動態：動作由主體承受。中文的被動態常用「被」、「給」等字來表示。

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

How 態 was written 字形演變

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