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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

款

/kʰu̯än²¹⁴/
money (of certain kind)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 欠
  • 12 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Originally 歀 (kuài), phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): phonetic 柰 (OC *naːds) + semantic 欠 (“lacking, desire”), meaning “desire”. The 木 component was simplified into 士 via libian, similar to 隸→隷.

Shuowen Jiezi interprets it as phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kʰloːnʔ): abbreviated phonetic 窾 (OC *kʰloːnʔ) + semantic 欠 (“lacking, desire”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese柰 “a kind of apple similar to the crabapple (Malus asiatica)”
  • soundChinese窾 “hole; crack”
  • meaningChinese欠 “to lack; to be deficient”

Words built on it: 存款

Meanings

character
  1. money (of certain kind)
  2. model, type
  3. signature
  4. subsection; subparagraph; subclause (in bills)
  5. appearance; being
  6. Classifier for varieties: kind; sort; type ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

款：意有所欲也。从欠，𡪡省。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 錢財、經費。 例：存款、公款、專款
  2. 條目、項目。 例：條款、款項
  3. 規格、式樣。 例：款式、新款、舊款
  4. 書畫上的題字。 例：上款、下款、落款
  5. 招待。 例：款待、款宴
  6. 徐緩的、慢慢的。 例：款步

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

How 款 was written 字形演變

  1. 款 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 款 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: 款