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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

插

/ʈ͡ʂʰä⁵⁵/
to stick into; to insert; to poke; to pierce
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 手
  • 12 strokes

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Origin

Compare perhaps Burmese စွပ် (cwap, “to put on socks”) (Luce, 1981).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese扌 “left radical form of 手 (shǒu).”
  • partChinese臿 “to grind; to pound; to hull; to husk”
    • ideaChinese干 “to concern; to be implicated in; implication”
    • ideaChinese臼 “mortar (hollow vessel used to pound or crush ingredients)”

Related: Burmese စွပ်

Meanings

character
  1. to stick into; to insert; to poke; to pierce
  2. to interpose; to insert; to cut in
  3. to participate; to take part in; to mix; to mingle
  4. to plant
  5. to scold; to criticize
  6. to take notice of; to pay attention to; to heed

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

插：刺肉也。从手从臿。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 把片狀物或條形物放進或刺入其他物體中。 例：插卡、插秧、插翅難飛　◎
  2. 中途加入或加入既有事物的中間。 例：插班、插花、插話

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

How 插 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 插