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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

熱

rè
hot; heated; having a high temperature
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 火
  • 15 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ŋjed): phonetic 埶 (OC *ŋeds) + semantic 灬 (“fire”).

Schuessler (2024) considers this a *-t derivation of Proto-Sino-Tibetan *nwe (“warm”), whence also Burmese နွေး (nwe:, “warm; lukewarm”), နွှေး (hnwe:, “to warm something; to revise”).

Often considered to be related to 爇 (OC *ŋʷjed, “to burn; to toast”) and 焫 (OC *njod, “hot”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*nwe “warm”
  • soundChinese埶
  • meaningChinese火 “fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)”

Related: Burmese နွေး

Meanings

character
  1. hot; heated; having a high temperature
  2. hot (of the weather)
  3. to heat up; to warm up
  4. heat; hotness; warmness; high temperature
  5. hot weather; summer heat
  6. ardent; warmhearted; enthusiastic

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

熱：溫也。从火埶聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 物理學上指在沒有其他形式的能量進出時，能使物體吸收後升溫，釋放後降溫的能。 例：熱量、加熱、導熱
  2. 溫度高。與「冷」相對。 例：發熱、熱水、打鐵趁熱　◎
  3. 加熱，使溫度升高。 例：把這碗湯拿去熱一下。
  4. 親切、情意深厚。 例：熱心、熱絡、熱情
  5. 強烈的、急切的。 例：熱戀、熱愛、熱望
  6. 受人喜愛的。 例：熱門

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

How 熱 was written 字形演變

  1. 熱 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 熱 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 熱 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: 熱