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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

檢

/t͡ɕi̯ɛn²¹⁴/
measure; standard
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • radical 木
  • 17 strokes
  • 撿
  • 捡

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kramʔ): semantic 木 + phonetic 僉 (OC *skʰlam). Perhaps, it originally indicates the blade on the top of a wooden spear. Partly related to 鐱 > 劍, which indicates a sword (hence a blade).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese木 “tree; woody plant”
  • soundChinese僉 “all; together; unanimous”
    • ideaChinese亼 “mouth”
      • ideaChinese入 “to enter; to go into”
      • ideaChinese一 “one”
    • ideaChinese兄 “elder brother”
      • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
      • ideaChinese儿 “standing person”
    • ideaChinese吅 “to speak loudly”
    • ideaChinese从 “two people standing together”

Meanings

character
  1. measure; standard
  2. to restrain (especially oneself); to keep oneself in check
  3. to check; to examine; to inspect
  4. book label
  5. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

檢：書署也。从木僉聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 查驗。 例：檢核、檢視
  2. 約束、節制。 例：行為不檢
  3. 揭發。 例：檢舉

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

How 檢 was written 字形演變

  1. 檢 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 檢 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 檢 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 檢