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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

毒

dú
poison; toxin; venom; bane
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 毋
  • 8 strokes
  • 餖
  • 饾

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  • derived
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Origin

Chen, Jian (2020): Pictogram (象形) of a woman wearing a feathered ornament on her head – original form of 纛 (OC *duːɡs, *duːɡ, “feathered ornament”). Later borrowed for 毒 (OC *l'uːɡ, “poison”). If this is the correct interpretation, see also 每.

Alternatively, Li Xueqin (2012) proposes it is a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l'uːɡ): semantic 屮 (“vegetation”) + phonetic 毐 (OC *ʔmɯː, *ʔmɯːʔ), meaning "a type of poisonous plant."

; “poison”

; “to poison” (Pronunciation 2)

; “nerdy”

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese屮 “new birth of plant”
  • soundChinese毐 “a courtesy name”
    • ideaChinese士 “unmarried male; bachelor”
    • ideaChinese毋 “do not, don't”

Words built on it: 病毒, 毒品

Meanings

character
  1. poison; toxin; venom; bane
  2. calamity; disaster; trouble
  3. pain; suffering
  4. crime; evil
  5. to poison; to administer poison to
  6. to harm; to injure

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

毒：厚也。害人之艸，往往而生。从屮从毒。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 會危害生命健康的物質。 例：中毒
  2. 對健康或生命有危害的。 例：毒品、毒藥、毒物
  3. 特指嗎啡、海洛因等毒品。 例：販毒、吸毒、反毒運動
  4. 本身含有毒素的。 例：毒蛇、毒草
  5. 凶狠、猛烈。 例：狠毒、惡毒
  6. 傷害、殘害。 例：荼毒、毒害

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

How 毒 was written 字形演變

  1. 毒 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 毒 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 毒 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: 毒