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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

省

shěng
to omit; to leave out
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 目
  • 9 strokes

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Origin

Originally 眚. In oracle bone script, an phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sreŋʔ, *sleŋʔ): phonetic 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs) + 目 (“eye”) – "to inspect". In Shuowen Jiezi, 眚 and 省 became separate characters. 生 corrupted over time into 少.

; verb senses

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese生 “to live; to subsist; to exist”
    • ideaChinese屮 “new birth of plant”
    • ideaChinese一 “one”
  • componentChinese目 “eye (Classifier: 雙／双 mn-t)”

Meanings

character
  1. to omit; to leave out
  2. to reduce; to simplify
  3. to have less strange, potentially genius but generally lousy ideas for the sake of others to save worry
  4. to save; to economize
  5. palace
  6. department (of a government)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

省：視也。从眉省，从屮。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 古代的一種行政機構名稱。 例：中書省、尚書省、門下省
  2. 介於中央與縣市之間的地方行政層級。
  3. 節約、減少。 例：省略、省錢、省吃儉用

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

How 省 was written 字形演變

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