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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

游

yóu
to swim
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 水
  • 12 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *lu): semantic 水 (“water”) + phonetic 斿 (OC *lu). However, the phonetic component has a reference to travelling, hence it adds part of the meaning.

From Sino-Tibetan. Cognate with Tibetan རྒྱུ་བ (rgyu ba, “to walk; to wander”), Lepcha ᰚᰪᰌᰦ (yŭ-da, “to flow”), Rawang yø (“to flow”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Same word as 遊 (OC *lu, “to roam; to travel”). Cognate with 流 (OC *ru, “to flow”), 泅 (OC *lju). Probably unrelated to 油 (OC *lɯw, “abundant”), 滺 (“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斿 “decoration hanging down from a flag or banner, e.g. a streamer or tassel”
    • ideaChinese㫃 “appearance of flags flying”
    • ideaChinese子 “child; offspring; descendant”

Related: Tibetan རྒྱུ་བ, Lepcha ᰚᰪᰌᰦ, Rawang yø

Words built on it: 游泳, 游泳池

Meanings

character
  1. to swim
  2. reach; part of a river
  3. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

游：旌旗之流也。从㫃汓聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 在水面浮行。 例：游泳
  2. 飄蕩不定。 例：游民、游資、氣若游絲
  3. 河流、江河的段落。 例：上游、中游、下游
  4. 遨遊。通「遊」。
  5. 交往。通「遊」。
  6. 姓。

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

How 游 was written 字形演變

  1. 游 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 游 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 游 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 游 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 游 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 游 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: 游