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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

百

bǎi
hundred
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 白
  • 6 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *praːɡ): semantic 一 + phonetic 白 (OC *braːɡ).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pV-rja(k).

皕 (bì, “two hundred”) is derived from 百 (bǎi), perhaps by abbreviation of an ancient pronunciation of 二百 Sagart (2023c).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*pV-rja(k)
  • meaningChinese一 “one”
  • soundChinese白 “white”

Words built on it: 老百姓

Meanings

character
  1. hundred
  2. numerous; countless; many
  3. every; all
  4. a surname, Bai, Baak, and Bak

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

百：十十也。从一、白。數，十百爲一貫。相章也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 數目字。十的十倍。大寫為「佰」。
  2. 各種、眾多。 例：百貨、百感交集、百戰百勝

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

How 百 was written 字形演變

  1. 百 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 百 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 百 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 百 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 百 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 百 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: 百