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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

星

xīng
star (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 粒 c mn)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • radical 日
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sleːŋ): phonetic 晶 (OC *ʔsleŋ, “twinkling stars”) + phonetic 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs). 晶 originally referred to this word; a phonetic 生 was added later (Ji Xusheng, 2004). 晶 was later simplified into 日.

Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstructs the Old Chinese as *s-tsʰˤeŋ, which can be analysed as a verbal root *tsʰˤeŋ (“bright”) with a prefix *s-. This reconstruction accounts for the Min initial *tsh- and the use of the character to write the word 晴 (OC *N-tsʰeŋ).

Possibly related to 清 (OC *sʰleŋ, “clear”) (Schuessler, 2007; Baxter and Sagart, 2014), in turn from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(t)s(j)aŋ (“clear; pure; clean”).

Proto-Kiranti *saŋ (“star”) either develops from a parallel Sino-Tibetan root (Schuessler, 2007) or derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sV-kar (“star”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*(t)s(j)aŋ “clear; pure; clean”
  • soundChinese晶 “brilliant; glittering”
  • soundChinese生 “to live; to subsist; to exist”
    • ideaChinese屮 “new birth of plant”
    • ideaChinese一 “one”

Related: Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sV-kar

Words built on it: 星期, 星期日, 星期天, 明星, 星星, 醒

Meanings

character
  1. star (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 粒 c mn)
  2. planet; heavenly body
  3. star-shaped object
  4. particle; tiny bits and pieces
  5. star; celebrity; famous person; someone who is the subject of attention
  6. weight marks on a steelyard

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 宇宙中會發光或反射光的天體。 例：流星、恆星、行星
  2. 比喻細小或發亮的東西。 例：星火、眼冒金星
  3. 比喻為人所崇拜、注目，或是某事的主要人物。 例：明星、救星、壽星
  4. 鑲在秤桿上，用以標誌斤、兩、錢的小點。 例：秤星、定盤星
  5. 色白如星。 例：星鬢

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

How 星 was written 字形演變

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