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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

易

/i⁵¹/
original form of 賜／赐 (cì, “to give; to bestow”)
  • pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 日
  • 8 strokes
  • 噲
  • 𠃓
  • 哙

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions: a pictogram (象形) of a filled container, the original form of 賜 (OC *sleːɡs, “to confer, to bestow”). Possibly specialised from 益 (OC *qleɡ, “to increase, to add”). Perhaps borrowed phonetically to mean "easy".

The character is not the pictogram of a chameleon, as folk etymology says. Unrelated to 陽 since it doesn't represent the sun.

From 移 (OC *lal, “to change; to alter”) + k-extension (Schuessler, 2007). The meaning of "change, alter" is linked to "give, bestow" since something given by somebody to somebody else "changes" its owner.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *loj (“easy”). Cognate with Burmese လွယ် (lwai, “easy”).

Etymology 3

Possibly from 慧 (OC *ɡʷeːds) (Li Ru-long, 2002).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*loj “easy”

Related: Burmese လွယ်

Words built on it: 容易, 交易, 踢

Meanings

character
  1. original form of 賜／赐 (cì, “to give; to bestow”)
  2. to exchange; to interchange
  3. to change; to alter; to modify
  4. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

易：蜥易，蝘蜓，守宮也。象形。《祕書》說：日月爲易，象陰陽也。一曰从勿。凡易之屬皆从易。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 簡單。與「難」相對。 例：容易、知難行易
  2. 和順、和藹。 例：平易近人
  3. 交換。 例：交易、貿易、以物易物
  4. 改變。 例：變易、易容、移風易俗
  5. 姓。

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

How 易 was written 字形演變

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