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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

玉

yù
jade (originally nephrite, now also including jadeite)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 玉
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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Origin

The character's shape was historically very similar to 王; a dot was introduced to differentiate the two.

Pictogram (象形): a picture of a cong (琮), a sort of ritual jade totem.

It is also interpreted as three pieces of jade strung together on a string.

It is also used as a simplification of 或.

STEDT compares it to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-lu(ŋ/k) (“stone”), which is also compared to 琭 (OC *roːɡ, “a kind of precious stone”) and 碭 (OC *l'aːŋ, *l'aːŋs, “brilliant veined stone”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese王 “king; monarch”
  • partChinese丶 “An ancient punctuation mark.”

Words built on it: 玩, 球, 全, 弄, 現, 玉米, 環, 理

Meanings

character
  1. jade (originally nephrite, now also including jadeite)
  2. pure; beautiful
  3. your
  4. used in 玉冰燒
  5. a surname, Yu

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

玉：石之美。有五德：潤澤以溫，仁之方也；䚡理自外，可以知中，義之方也；其聲舒揚，尃以遠聞，智之方也；不橈而折，勇之方也；銳廉而不技，絜之方也。象三玉之連，丨其貫也。凡玉之屬皆从玉。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 質地溫潤堅硬而有光澤的礦石。呈半透明狀。一般用作裝飾品或雕刻材料。 例：青玉、寶玉、碧玉
  2. 用玉做成的。 例：玉璽、玉簪、玉環
  3. 漂亮、美好。 例：玉手、玉人、玉女
  4. 珍貴、精美。 例：錦衣玉食、玉液瓊漿
  5. 尊稱他人的所有。 例：玉照、玉體、玉音

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

How 玉 was written 字形演變

  1. 玉 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 玉 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 玉 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 玉 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 玉 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 玉 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 玉