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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

次

cì
order; sequence
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 欠
  • 6 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形): a person exhaling. Possibly the original form of 咨 (OC *ʔsli, “to sigh”).

Shuowen incorrectly interprets it as a phono-semantic compound of 二 (OC *njis) + 欠, refuted by ancient forms of the character.

The breath or saliva is is represented by 二 or 冫, depending on the font. An old variant of the character is 𣄭.

See 曰, 丂, 于, 只, which also feature depictions of breathing. Unrelated to 㳄, which means "saliva" instead.

Paleographic evidence on bronzeware shows graphical connections with 即 (OC *[ts]ik), suggesting an Old Chinese reconstruction with the *tsʰ- initial instead (Zhang, 2024), perhaps as /*tsʰik-s/. Connections to 二 (OC *njis, “two”) as suggested in older works (Pulleyblank, 1962; Sagart and Baxter, 2012; STEDT) are thus untenable.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Words built on it: 其次, 下次, 上次, 多次, 資, 再次

Meanings

character
  1. order; sequence
  2. order
  3. next in sequence; second
  4. to come next in order
  5. to arrange into ordered form; to put into sequence; to impose order; to compile
  6. inferior; substandard

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

次：不前，不精也。从欠二聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 第二的、下一個。 例：次子、次年、其次
  2. 較差的、較不重要的。 例：次貨、次級、次要
  3. 等第、順序。 例：席次、年次、名次
  4. 外出居住的地方、所在。 例：客次、旅次、舟次
  5. 中間。 例：胸次
  6. 量詞。計算動作回數的單位。 例：初次嘗試、第三次段考

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

How 次 was written 字形演變

  1. 次 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 次 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 次 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 次 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 次 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: 次