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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

波

bō
wave; breaker
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 水
  • 8 strokes
  • 罷
  • 罢

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *paːl): semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 皮 (OC *bral, “surface”).

; “wave; undulation”

: STEDT and Starostin derive it from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r/m-ba (“wave; ripple”). Cognate with Tibetan རྦ (rba), དབའ (dba', “wave”).

: Schuessler (2007) notes a mismatch of the vowels in the above comparanda, and instead posits a root *paj (“slanted; not level”), also subsuming 陂 (OC *pral, “slope; slanting”).

: Wang (1982) relates it to 播 (OC *paːls, “to winnow”), 簸 (OC *paːlʔ, *paːls, “to winnow”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English ball. Compare Hokkien bò͘-lù.

Etymology 3

Likely also from 罷／罢 (bà) and 夫 (OC *ba, “is it not?”), itself a contraction of 不乎. See 吧 (ba).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*r/m-ba “wave; ripple”
  • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
  • soundChinese皮 “skin; peel; shell; rind (Classifier: 塊／块 m c; 層／层 m c)”
  • borrowedEnglishball “A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishbal
      • inheritedOld English*beall
    • borrowedMiddle Frenchball
      • derivedMiddle Frenchbaler “to dance”

Related: Tibetan རྦ, Hokkien bò͘-lù

Meanings

character
  1. wave; breaker
  2. undulation
  3. wave
  4. elderly person
  5. a surname
  6. used in 波羅／波罗 (bōluó), alternative form of 菠蘿 /菠萝 (bōluó)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

波：水涌流也。从水皮聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 水因湧流或風力振盪所產生的起伏現象。 例：水波、波浪
  2. 比喻目光。 例：眼波、秋波
  3. 物理學上指由彈性體振動所產生像波浪一樣起落的現象。 例：音波、電波
  4. 跑。 例：奔波
  5. 量詞。計算接續情勢的單位。 例：一波又一波的攻勢。

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

How 波 was written 字形演變

  1. 波 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 波 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 波 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 波 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: 波