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

毀

huǐ
to destroy; to ruin
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 殳
  • 13 strokes

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

* Sears interprets it as Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 臼 (“cracked skull”) + 工 (“tool”) + 殳 (“hand action”), a man being hit in the head.

* Liu Zhao interprets it as Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hmralʔ, *hmrals): phonetic 𬛸 + semantic 殳 (“hand holding staff; strike”)

* Shuowen Jiezi interprets it as Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hmralʔ, *hmrals): abbreviated phonetic 毇 (OC *hmralʔ) + semantic 土

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese臼 “mortar (hollow vessel used to pound or crush ingredients)”
  • soundChinese𬛸
  • soundChinese毇 “to pound rice in a mortar”
    • ideaChinese䊆 “cooked dry rice flour”
    • meaningChinese米 “hulled or husked uncooked rice (Classifier: 粒 m c mn; 顆／颗 m)”
  • ideaChinese工 “labour; work (Classifier: 份 c)”
  • meaningChinese殳 “shu (an ancient Chinese weapon)”
    • ideaChinese𠘧 “used in 𠘧𠘧; refers to the wings of a bird in flight (according to the Shuowen Jiezi)”
    • ideaChinese又 “again; once more”
  • meaningChinese土 “earth; soil”

Meanings

character
  1. to destroy; to ruin
  2. to slander
  3. a surname, Hui

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

毀：缺也。从土，毇省聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 損傷、破壞。 例：銷毀、毀壞、摧毀
  2. 誹謗、批評。 例：毀謗、毀譽參半

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

How 毀 was written 字形演變

  1. 毀 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 毀 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 毀 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 毀 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 毀 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: 毀