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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

爾

/ˀɤɻ²¹⁴/
you; your
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 5
  • radical 爻
  • 14 strokes
  • 領
  • 领

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – cloth on a loom, with threads crossing – original form of 檷 (OC *niːlʔ, “loom”). Later phonetically borrowed as an instance of jiajie (假借) to represent 爾 (OC *njelʔ, “you”).

; “you; your”

; "that"

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Meanings

character
  1. you; your
  2. so; this way
  3. this; that
  4. exuberant
  5. a suffix or word-final particle indicating state, appearance, sound, or manner accompanying a verb
  6. a sentence final particle; merely; only

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

爾：麗爾，猶靡麗也。从冂从㸚，其孔㸚，尒聲。此與爽同意。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 第二人稱代詞，相當於「汝」、「你」。 例：爾心、爾曹、爾虞我詐
  2. 此、這、那。 例：爾後、爾時
  3. 如此、這樣。 例：不爾、果爾
  4. 詞綴。表性狀。 例：莞爾、卓爾
  5. 近。通「邇」。 例：爾來

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

How 爾 was written 字形演變

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