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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

成

chéng
to succeed; to accomplish; to achieve; to finish; to complete
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 戈
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *djeŋ): semantic 戊 + phonetic 丁 (OC *rteːŋ, *teːŋ). The phonetic component is not 囗 or 口, as folk etymology states. According to Ji Xusheng 季旭昇, its original meaning was "city walls", with a reference to something protected conveyed by the weapon. Its original meaning is preserved in 城.

Cognate with 盛 (OC *djeŋ, “to hold with a receptacle”), 城 (OC *djeŋ, “city wall; city”), 盛 (OC *djeŋs, “abundant; flourishing”) (Schuessler, 2007).

According to Bodman (1980), cognate with Tibetan གྱང (gyang, “wall”), Tibetan འགེངས་པ ('gengs pa, “to fill”), Tibetan བཀང (bkang, “to fill to the brim”), Tibetan སྐོང་བ (skong ba, “to fulfill”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese戊 “the fifth of the ten heavenly stems”
  • soundChinese丁 “the fourth of the ten heavenly stems”

Related: Tibetan གྱང, Tibetan འགེངས་པ, Tibetan བཀང, Tibetan སྐོང་བ

Words built on it: 完成, 成功, 城, 造成, 成立, 形成, 成果, 成熟, 成就, 成本, 成人, 建成

Meanings

character
  1. to succeed; to accomplish; to achieve; to finish; to complete
  2. indicates successful completion or accomplishment of an action
  3. to help to achieve
  4. to become; to turn into
  5. into; as
  6. achievement; successful completion; positive result

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

成：就也。从戊丁聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 事情達到預定目標。與「敗」相對。 例：完成、功成名就、大功告成
  2. 變為。 例：點石成金、磨杵成針、弄假成真
  3. 促成。 例：成全、玉成其事、成人之美
  4. 完成發育階段的。 例：成人、成蟲、成熟
  5. 現有的、已完成的。 例：成例、成品、成藥
  6. 構成整體的。 例：成分、成員、成語

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

How 成 was written 字形演變

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