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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

火

huǒ
fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 火
  • 4 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – pictographic representation of a fire. Written as 灬 when at the bottom of a character, but still seen in the original form in the character 灸.

See also the top component of 叟 in its original form and the bottom part of 赤.

Possibly from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *məj (Schuessler 2007; STEDT). However, see there for phonological problems.

Sagart and Baxter (2024) update their Old Chinese reconstruction to 火 (OC *X.pˤərʔ) (whence MC xwaX → huǒ) and propose alternative cognacy to 燹 (OC *X.pər(ʔ)-s) (whence MC xwijH), both being prefixed by unknown element X- which turned the labial plosive *p(ʰ)- into the fricative *xw-; moreover, both are cognates to 燹 (OC *sə-pˤər(ʔ)-s) (whence MC senX → xiǎn). They also propose that aforesaid Chinese words are cognates to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *par (i.e. STEDT Etymon #2152 *bʷar ~ *pʷar (“fire; burn; kindle; roast”), see there for descendants) as well as Proto-Austronesian *dapuʀ (“cooking fire, hearth”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese丷 “Component variant of 八.”
  • partChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”

Related: Proto-Tibeto-Burman *par, Proto-Austronesian *dapuʀ

Words built on it: 熱, 魚, 票, 鳥, 黑, 光, 燈, 秋, 熟, 照, 煩, 煙

Meanings

character
  1. fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)
  2. fire (as a disaster); inferno
  3. fire, one of the five elements of Wu Xing (五行 (-))
  4. red; fiery; bright; brilliant
  5. to burn down
  6. light; torch

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

火：燬也。南方之行，炎而上。象形。凡火之屬皆从火。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 物體燃燒時產生的光和熱。可燃物、燃點和氧氣是火的三要件。 例：爐火、燭火、柴火
  2. 急速、緊急。 例：火速、火急
  3. 動怒。 例：火大、發火、冒火
  4. 中醫指病理變化過程中，機能亢進的現象。 例：肝火、上火、退火
  5. 赤紅色的。 例：火紅、火狐狸
  6. 槍炮彈藥等武器。 例：軍火、火藥

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

How 火 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 火