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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

扶

fú
to hold onto something as support; to support oneself
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 手
  • 7 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *pa, *ba): semantic 扌 + phonetic 夫 (OC *pa, *ba).

Probably from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *p(l)a-n ~ *p(w)a-n (“palm, sole”), whence also 蹯 (OC *ban, “paw”), Burmese ဝါး (wa:, “handsbreath; palm of hand”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*p(l)a-n ~ *p(w)a-n “palm, sole”
  • meaningChinese手 “hand (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn; 雙／双 m mn; 對／对 c)”
  • soundChinese夫 “male adult; man”

Related: Burmese ဝါး

Meanings

character
  1. to hold onto something as support; to support oneself
  2. to help someone up; to support someone
  3. to help; to aid; to assist
  4. to try to do something despite illness
  5. a surname, Fu
  6. to pardon

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

扶：左也。从手夫聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 用手支持，使人或物持立不倒。 例：攙扶、扶老攜幼　◎
  2. 幫助、輔佐。 例：扶植、濟弱扶傾
  3. 護送。 例：扶靈返籍
  4. 循、沿。 例：陽明山杜鵑扶道而生，每當花季，滿山映紅。

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

How 扶 was written 字形演變

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