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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

永

yǒng
perpetual; eternal; permanent; forever
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • radical 水
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Pictogram (象形) of a long river with tributaries. Cognate with 𠂢, 派.

Alternatively, pictogram (象形) of a person swimming in the water. Original form of 泳 (OC *ɢʷraŋs).

Uncertain.

* STEDT compares 永 (OC *ɢʷraŋʔ) to provisional Proto-Lolo-Burmese meso-root *ʔ-m(y)aŋ¹/³;

* Bodman (1980) derived 永 (OC *ɢʷraŋʔ) from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *wrjaŋ & considered it cognate with Lepcha ᰝᰥᰤᰰ (hryăn) as well as Tibetan རྒྱོང་བ (rgyong ba, “to extend; to stretch”) and རྒྱང་མ (rgyang ma, “distance”);

* Schuessler (2007) considered to be unclear any connection with 泂 (OC *ɡʷeːŋʔ) and Tibetan རིང (ring, “to be tall, long”), Western Tamang rehng pā (“to be long”), Burmese ရှည် (hrany, “to be long”), (all from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-r(i/u)ŋ (“to be long, to elongate”)) & Proto-Loloish *s/m-riŋ (“long (adv.)”); so Schuessler compared 永 (OC *ɢʷraŋʔ) to Khmer វែង (vɛɛng, “long”) and Khmer បង្វែង (bɑngvaeng, “to prolong, divert, mislead, deceive”) (both from Proto-Mon-Khmer *waiŋ (“long”)).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*wrjaŋ

Related: Lepcha ᰝᰥᰤᰰ, Tibetan རྒྱོང་བ, Tibetan རིང, Western Tamang rehng pā, Burmese ရှည်, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-r(i/u)ŋ, Proto-Loloish *s/m-riŋ, Khmer វែង, Khmer បង្វែង, Proto-Mon-Khmer *waiŋ

Meanings

character
  1. perpetual; eternal; permanent; forever
  2. long (space or time)
  3. to prolong; to lengthen
  4. 53rd tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "eternity" (𝌺)
  5. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

永：長也。象水坙理之長。《詩》曰：“江之永矣。”凡永之屬皆从永。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 恆久、久遠。 例：永久、永遠、一勞永逸

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

How 永 was written 字形演變

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