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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

氣

qì
gas (matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 气
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kʰɯds, *qʰɯds): phonetic 气 (OC *kʰɯds) + semantic 米 (“rice”).

Later borrowed meanings of “air, flow” from 气 (OC *kʰɯds). The derivative 餼 (OC *qʰɯds) refers to the original word. Compare 乞 (OC *kʰɯds, *kʰɯd).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese气 “gas”
  • meaningChinese米 “hulled or husked uncooked rice (Classifier: 粒 m c mn; 顆／颗 m)”

Words built on it: 天氣, 空氣

Meanings

character
  1. gas (matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma)
  2. air
  3. breath (Classifier: 口 m; 股 m; 啖 c)
  4. qi; vital energy; life force
  5. weather
  6. smell; odour

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

氣：饋客芻米也。从米气聲。《春秋傳》曰：“齊人來氣諸矦。”

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 物體三態之一，有別於固體、液體，沒有固定的形狀、體積，能自由流散的物質。如空氣、水蒸氣等。
  2. 人或動物的呼吸。 例：氣絕、氣息、屏氣
  3. 自然界陰晴、冷暖等的現象。 例：天氣、氣候、氣象
  4. 味道。 例：氣味、香氣、臭氣
  5. 惱怒、憤怒。 例：生氣、動氣、氣人
  6. 人的情緒或表現出來的精神狀態。 例：脾氣、朝氣、勇氣

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

How 氣 was written 字形演變

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