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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

敗

/paɪ̯⁵¹/
to lose (a game); to be defeated
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 攴
  • 11 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *praːds, *braːds): phonetic 貝 (OC *paːds) + semantic 攵 (“strike”).

Possibly Sino-Tibetan. According to Zhang, Jacques and Lai (2019), the modern meaning of the word originated from a semantic narrowing of its original sense "to break", thus making it cognate with Situ ka-prāt (“to break”) and also Japhug prɤt (“to break”). Their common root would be Proto-Sino-Tibetan *prat (“to break”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*prat “to break”
  • soundChinese貝 “shellfish; cowrie”
  • meaningChinese攴 “to hit lightly; to tap”

Related: Situ ka-prāt, Japhug prɤt

Meanings

character
  1. to lose (a game); to be defeated
  2. to fail
  3. to defeat
  4. to tarnish; to ruin; to destroy
  5. to wither and fall
  6. dilapidated; worn-out; (of clothing) tattered

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

敗：毀也。从攴、貝。敗、賊皆从貝，會意。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 在戰爭或競賽中失利。與「勝」相對。 例：敗北、敗走、戰敗
  2. 打敗。 例：大敗敵軍
  3. 事情沒有達到預定目標。與「成」相對。 例：失敗、不計成敗
  4. 毀壞、損壞。 例：敗壞、屋敗梁頹
  5. 使不成功。 例：成事不足，敗事有餘。
  6. 凋殘的。 例：枯枝敗葉、殘花敗柳

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

How 敗 was written 字形演變

  1. 敗 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 敗 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 敗 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 敗 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 敗 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 敗 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: 敗