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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

淺

qiǎn
shallow; not deep
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 水
  • 11 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sʰlenʔ, *ʔsleːn): semantic 氵 + phonetic 戔 (OC *zlaːn).

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戔 “original form of 殘／残 (cán, “to harm; to injure”)”

Meanings

character
  1. shallow; not deep
  2. superficial; surface; minimal; insignificant
  3. simple; easy-to-understand
  4. not intimate; distant
  5. light; pale
  6. short; not long

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

淺：不深也。从水戔聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 水面到水底距離近。引申指上下、內外的距離小。與「深」相對。 例：淺海、淺灘、口袋淺　◎
  2. 不深厚、不長久。 例：情深緣淺、交淺言深
  3. 簡明。 例：淺白、淺顯易懂
  4. 程度低、學識智謀粗陋。 例：淺見、才疏學淺
  5. 顏色清淡。 例：淺黃、淺綠
  6. 少量、輕微。 例：淺酌、淺笑、淺斟低唱

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

How 淺 was written 字形演變

  1. 淺 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 淺 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 淺 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 淺 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: 淺