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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

死

sǐ
to die
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 歹
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hljiʔ): semantic 歹 + phonetic 尸 (OC *hli).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sij.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*sij
  • meaningChinese歹 “bone remnants”
  • soundChinese尸 “a living person who represents the dead person during a rite”

Words built on it: 死亡

Meanings

character
  1. to die
  2. to die for the sake of; to sacrifice oneself for; to die together with someone
  3. deadly; fatal; killing; to the death
  4. inactive
  5. very; bloody; totally
  6. damned; damn

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

死：澌也，人所離也。从歺从人。凡死之屬皆从死。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 生物喪失生命。與「活」、「生」相對。 例：死亡、枯死、死於非命
  2. 拚命的。 例：死守、死戰
  3. 失去作用的、不活動的。 例：死棋、死會、死水
  4. 不靈活、不可改變的。 例：死板、死腦筋、死心眼
  5. 堅決、固執或不知變通。 例：死記、死不肯說、死不承認
  6. 非常、極甚。表示程度達到極點。 例：怕死了、熱死了、笑死了

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

How 死 was written 字形演變

  1. 死 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 死 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 死 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 死 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 死 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 死 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: 死