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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

照

zhào
to shine upon; to illuminate
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 火
  • 13 strokes
  • 炤

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tjews): semantic 灬 (“fire”) + phonetic 昭 (OC *tjew).

Exoactive of 昭 (OC *tjew, “bright”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Etymology 3

Contraction of 只塊／只块 (zi2 go3, “here”) (Xu Huiling, 2007, pg. 88).

Compare Min Nan 遮 (chiâ/chiô, “here”)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese火 “fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)”
  • soundChinese昭 “bright; luminous”
    • meaningChinese日 “Sun”
    • soundChinese召 “imperial decree”
      • soundChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”
      • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Related: Min Nan 遮

Words built on it: 照片, 按照, 照相, 拍照, 依照

Meanings

character
  1. to shine upon; to illuminate
  2. to reflect; to look (in the mirror)
  3. to contrast; to compare
  4. to notify; to inform
  5. to take care of
  6. to take a photo

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

照：明也。从火昭聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 光線投射。 例：照耀、照射、陽光普照　◎
  2. 藉著鏡子或反光物而反映物體形象。 例：攬鏡自照
  3. 比擬、依據。 例：仿照、依照、照本宣科
  4. 知道、明白。 例：心照不宣
  5. 看顧。 例：照顧、照應、照料
  6. 攝取影像。 例：照相

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

How 照 was written 字形演變

  1. 照 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 照 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 照 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: 照