源etymfun
About

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

男

nán
man; (only of human in Standard Chinese) male
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 田
  • 7 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 田 (“field”) + 力 (“strength”) – man providing the strength for agricultural and/or other kinds of (physical) labour on a field.

Probably an area word. Compare Proto-Kiranti *nam (“man”), Proto-Monic *k()ɲoom (“young child”), Proto-Wa *h/ʔn[o]m (“young man”), Thai หนุ่ม (nùm, “young man; young”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Wang (1982) connects it to 農 (OC *nuːŋ, “farmer”). Goldin (2021) suggests a connection to 任 (OC *njɯms, “to bear; to be in charge”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese田 “farmland (Classifier: 塊／块 m c)”
  • ideaChinese力 “physical strength; physical power; energy”

Related: Proto-Monic *k()ɲoom, Thai หนุ่ม

Words built on it: 男人, 男生, 男朋友, 男子, 男性, 男女

Meanings

character
  1. man; (only of human in Standard Chinese) male
  2. son
  3. baron, lowest of the five ranks of Chinese aristocracy (五等爵位) under the Zhou dynasty
  4. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

男：丈夫也。从田从力。言男用力於田也。凡男之屬皆从男。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 男性、男人。與「女」相對。 例：男孩子、男女合班
  2. 兒子。 例：長男
  3. 古代封建制度公、侯、伯、子、男五等爵的最末一等。 例：男爵

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

How 男 was written 字形演變

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