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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

清

qīng
clear; limpid
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 水
  • 11 strokes

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Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sʰleŋ): semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 青 (OC *sʰleːŋ).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(t)s(j)aŋ (“clear; pure; clean”); cognate with Tibetan གཙང (gtsang, “clean; pure”), Mizo thiang (“to be clear; to be clean; to be pure”), Southern Qiang ɕó, Drung cangma (“clean”), Burmese စင် (cang, “clean, pure”) (Schuessler, 2007; STEDT).

Within Chinese, cognate with 淨 (OC *zeŋs, “clean”), 醒 (OC *seːŋ, *seːŋʔ, *seːŋs, “to wake up; to become sober”), and allofamic with 星 (OC *sleːŋ, “star”), 晴 (OC *zleŋ, “(of weather) clear; fine”); possibly also related to 靜 (OC *zleŋʔ, “quiet”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Perhaps an areal word; compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *caŋ (“to glitter”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymology 2

Rebracketing of the reading of Ching, which is a nonstandard romanisation of 師兄 /师兄 (si¹ hing¹).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*(t)s(j)aŋ “clear; pure; clean”
  • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
  • soundChinese青 “blue-green ("grue"); blue (of sky, stone etc.); green (of grass, plants, mountains etc.)”
    • soundChinese生 “to live; to subsist; to exist”
      • ideaChinese屮 “new birth of plant”
      • ideaChinese一 “one”
    • soundChinese井 “well (a hole sunk into the ground) (Classifier: 口; 眼)”

Related: Tibetan གཙང, Mizo thiang, Drung cangma, Burmese စင်, Proto-Mon-Khmer *caŋ

Words built on it: 清楚, 清醒, 清晨

Meanings

character
  1. clear; limpid
  2. clean; unstained
  3. pure; unmixed
  4. distinct; clear; apparent
  5. fair and honest; upright
  6. quiet; still

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

清：朖也。澂水之皃。从水青聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 澄淨、純潔。與濁相對。 例：清潔、清澈、清溪
  2. 詳細、明白。 例：清楚
  3. 使乾淨、使整齊。 例：清道、清黨、堅壁清野
  4. 寂靜、安靜。 例：冷清、清靜
  5. 高潔、廉潔。 例：清望、清廉
  6. 單純的。 例：清唱、清一色

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

How 清 was written 字形演變

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