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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

田

tián
farmland (Classifier: 塊／块 m c)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 田
  • 5 strokes

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Origin

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形) – pictographic representation of a field divided into four sections. See the original version of 甫 and 里.

Sometimes it means mask. See 異 and 鬼. Unrelated to 思, 黄, 果, 由, 甲, and perhaps 番.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mV-liŋ (“field”). Cognate with Tibetan ཞིང (zhing, “field; realm”), Jingpho maling (mă³¹ liŋ³³, “forest”). Compare Proto-Hmong-Mien *ljiŋ (“field”).

Etymology 2

The Min native word for “paddy field; field”.

Etymology unknown. Chinese scholars identify 塍 (OC *ɦljɯŋ, “raised path between fields”) as the etymological character (本字), although Norman proposes that this is related to 層 (OC *zɯːŋ, “layer”), reflecting the terraced fields commonly found in Fujian (Schuessler, 2007). Compare also 㽪 (“wet field”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese囗 “box, enclosure”
  • partChinese十 “ten”

Related: Tibetan ཞིང, Jingpho maling, Proto-Hmong-Mien *ljiŋ

Words built on it: 里, 男, 魚, 累, 黃, 留, 當, 明, 鬼

Meanings

character
  1. farmland (Classifier: 塊／块 m c)
  2. field (area rich in mineral reserves)
  3. (alt. form 佃, 畋) to till land; to cultivate
  4. (alt. form 佃, 畋, 甸) to hunt
  5. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

田：陳也。樹穀曰田。象四囗。十，阡陌之制也。凡田之屬皆从田。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 用來耕種的土地。 例：稻田、蔗田、梯田
  2. 蘊藏資源的地帶。 例：煤田、鹽田、油田
  3. 打獵。 例：田獵
  4. 姓。

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

How 田 was written 字形演變

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