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

淚

lèi
tear; teardrop
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 水
  • 11 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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ruds): semantic 水 + phonetic 戾 (OC *rɯːds, *rɯːd).

Often thought to be related to 泣 (OC *k-r̥əp, “to weep”) (Mei, 1980b; Baxter and Sagart, 2014).

However, Schuessler (2007, 2015) finds this phonologically problematic. He instead proposes that 淚 (OC *r(i)uts) derives from 流 (OC *r(i)u, “to flow”) + *-t (suffix in nouns for naturally occurring things), literally "the things that are flowing".

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
  • soundChinese戾 “perverse, recalcitrant, rebellious”

Meanings

character
  1. tear; teardrop
  2. to weep; to cry

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 人類傷心哭泣，或受外物刺激時，從眼睛流出來的液體。 例：含淚、流淚、落淚

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

How 淚 was written 字形演變

  1. 淚 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 淚 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 淚 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 淚 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 淚