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

机

/t͡ɕi⁵⁵/

alder

HSK 1
radical 木
6 strokes

Etymology graph

inherited
borrowed
derived
parts
meaning component
sound component
related

Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.

Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Lineage

simplified fromChinese機 “weaving machine; spinning machine”
- meaningChinese木 “tree; woody plant”
- soundChinese幾 “how much; how many”
  - ideaChinese𢆶 “minute; extremely small; tiny; infinitesimal”
  - ideaChinese戍 “to defend the frontier; (in general) to defend; to garrison”
    - ideaChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    - ideaChinese戈 “dagger-axe (an ancient Chinese weapon similar to a halberd)”

Meanings

character

alder
a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

机：木也。从木几聲。

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

How 机 was written 字形演變

Chu slips & silk
楚系簡帛
Warring States
Small seal
說文小篆
Shuowen, c. 100 CE
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)
說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0