源etymfun
About

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

歷

/li⁵¹/
to experience; to go through; to undergo
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • radical 止
  • 16 strokes
  • 歴
  • 历

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *reːɡ): phonetic 厤 (OC *reːɡ) + semantic 止.

Schuessler (2007) considered this word to be of Sino-Tibetan origin and a cognate to Burmese ရေ (re, “to count”), Kinnauri ri (“to count”), Tibetan རྩི (rtsi, “to count; to calculate”), and རྩིས་པ (rtsis pa, “astronomer”); however, STEDT derives Burmese ရေ (re) & Tibetan རྩི (rtsi) from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-tsjəj (“to count”) and does not compare them to Chinese 歷.

:One derivative is 曆 (OC *rêk), meaning "calendrical calculations" (Shu) → "calendar";

:Another derivative is exopassive 麗 (OC *rê(k)h), meaning "what is calculated → number" (Shi), whose possible allofam is 麗 (OC *rêh).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese厤 “to administer; to govern”
    • meaningChinese厂 “cliff; habitable cave on a cliff”
    • soundChinese秝 “sparse; thinly spread; few and scattered; few and far between”
      • ideaChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
  • meaningChinese止 “foot”

Related: Burmese ရေ, Kinnauri ri, Tibetan རྩི, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-tsjəj

Words built on it: 歷史

Meanings

character
  1. to experience; to go through; to undergo
  2. experience; history; record
  3. to surpass; to exceed; to overstep
  4. to offend; to go against; to undermine
  5. to travel through; to go travelling
  6. extensively; all over; completely

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

歷：過也。从止厤聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 經過。 例：歷劫、歷險、歷盡滄桑
  2. 過去的。 例：歷代、歷屆、歷年
  3. 過去的經驗。 例：履歷、學歷、資歷
  4. 完全的、周遍的。 例：歷覽群書、歷遊山川

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

How 歷 was written 字形演變

  1. 歷 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 歷 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 歷 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 歷 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: 歷