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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

戲

xì
to play; to amuse; to have fun
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 戈
  • 17 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *qʰral, *qʰrals, *qʰaː): phonetic 䖒 (xī) + semantic 戈 (“halberd”), originally referring to the wing or flank of an army.

Cognate with 嘕 (OC *qʰran, “to laugh”), Tibetan ཀྱལ་ཀ (kyal ka, “joke; jest; trick”), Mizo khâl (“to play with”), Mizo inkhêl (“to gamble; to play”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese䖒 “a kind of ancient earthenware vessel”
    • soundChinese虍 “pattern of tiger fur”
    • meaningChinese豆 “pod-bearing plant or its seeds; bean; pea (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 粒 m)”
  • meaningChinese戈 “dagger-axe (an ancient Chinese weapon similar to a halberd)”

Related: Tibetan ཀྱལ་ཀ, Mizo khâl, Mizo inkhêl

Words built on it: 遊戲

Meanings

character
  1. to play; to amuse; to have fun
  2. to tease; to chaff
  3. theatrical play; show; theater; opera (Classifier: 齣／出 m c mn; 部 m)
  4. movie; film (Classifier: 齣／出 c; 套 c)
  5. scene (Classifier: 場／场 c)
  6. interesting part; hope

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

戲：三軍之偏也。一曰兵也。从戈䖒聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 玩耍、嬉遊。 例：嬉戲、遊戲
  2. 開玩笑、嘲弄。 例：戲弄、戲言、戲謔
  3. 一種利用言語、表情、歌舞等方式以傳達情意的表演。 例：演戲、唱戲、歌仔戲

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

How 戲 was written 字形演變

  1. 戲 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 戲 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 戲 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 戲 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: 戲