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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

斤

jīn
catty or jin, a traditional unit of weight, equal to 0.5 kilograms
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 斤
  • 4 strokes
  • 釿
  • 觔
  • 𬬱

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Pictogram (象形) - an axe.

Unclear. Matisoff (2000) relates it to Proto-Lolo-Burmese *gyan (“pickax”); possibly also connected to Proto-Hmong-Mien *cwI:m (“axe”), Proto-Tai *xwaːnᴬ (“axe”) and/or Proto-Kam-Sui *kwan (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese厂 “cliff; habitable cave on a cliff”
  • partChinese丅

Related: Proto-Lolo-Burmese *gyan, Proto-Hmong-Mien *cwI:m, Proto-Tai *xwaːnᴬ, Proto-Kam-Sui *kwan

Words built on it: 新, 近, 所, 公斤, 斷, 折, 兵

Meanings

character
  1. catty or jin, a traditional unit of weight, equal to 0.5 kilograms
  2. catty or kan, a traditional unit of weight, legally defined as equal to 0.60478982 kilograms (公斤 or sometimes approximated as 500 grams)
  3. catty, a traditional unit of weight, equal to 0.6 kilograms, also equal to 16 taels
  4. axe; hatchet
  5. keen; shrewd

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

斤：斫木也。象形。凡斤之屬皆从斤。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 一種砍樹用的斧頭。 例：斧斤以時入山林，材木不可勝用也。（《孟子．梁惠王上》）
  2. 量詞。計算重量的單位。1公斤等於1000公克；1臺斤等於600公克；1市斤等於500公克。

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

How 斤 was written 字形演變

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