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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

方

fāng
side; aspect; party
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 方
  • 4 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Etymology 1

Possibly the original character of 旁 (OC *baːŋ, “side”), with its form related to 巫 (OC *ma). 巫 (wū) depicts four extremities with indicator symbols, being the original character of 荒 (OC *hmaːŋ, *hmaːŋs) in 四荒. Compared to 巫 (OC *ma), one end of this character lacks the indicator symbol and is elongated to denote "side" 旁 (OC *baːŋ). 方 (OC *paŋ, *baŋ) in 四方 (sìfāng) and 荒 (OC *hmaːŋ, *hmaːŋs) in 四荒 may be cognates.

It is unrelated to 㫃 (“fluttering flag”), from which characters like 旗 (OC *ɡɯ, “flag”) and 旅 (OC *ɡ·raʔ, “troops”) are derived.

; "side; square; region"

; "parallel boats"

; "just now"; "now"

; "method; law"

Etymology 4

For pronunciation and definitions of 方 – see 仿 (“to imitate; to resemble; to be similar; etc.”).

(This character is a variant form of 仿).

Etymology 6

Borrowed from English phon.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese亠 “couvercle (Kangxi radical)”
  • partChinese勹 “person bending over”
  • borrowedEnglishphon “A unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the intensity in decibels of a 1,000-hertz tone jud…”

Words built on it: 地方, 放, 方法, 方面, 方便, 方向, 方式, 西方, 南方, 北方, 官方, 方案

Meanings

character
  1. side; aspect; party
  2. joined boats; a raft; to cross by raft or boat
  3. to match; to be equal to; to be comparable with
  4. to compare; to liken
  5. to distinguish, identify, or classify; kind, category
  6. to possess; to occupy; to take over

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

方：併船也。象兩舟省、緫頭形。凡方之屬皆从方。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 四邊形的四個角皆成90度的形體。 例：正方、長方
  2. 方形的。 例：方桌、方塊
  3. 地理位置或方位。 例：遠方、南方、四面八方
  4. 指相對或並列的人或事物中的一方。 例：對方、控方、軍方
  5. 某一地區的。 例：方言、方音
  6. 法子、辦法。 例：方法、千方百計、教導有方

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

How 方 was written 字形演變

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