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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

眾所周知

/ʈ͡ʂʊŋ⁵¹ su̯ɔ²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʈ͡ʂoʊ̯⁵⁵ ʈ͡ʂɻ̩⁵⁵/
as everyone knows; as is known to all; it is well-known that; it is common knowledge that
  • 衆所周知
  • 众所周知
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Etymology graph

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The phrase describes a truth shared by a multitude, represented by a large circle of people gathered in common understanding.
The phrase describes a truth shared by a multitude, represented by a large circle of people gathered in common understanding.

Origin

The phrase 眾所周知 is formed by combining four characters: 眾, 所, 周, and 知. According to the MOE Dictionary, it signifies that everyone knows something.

The character 眾 refers to the masses, people, a multitude, a crowd, or everyone. The character 所 means a place or location; it contains the semantic component 斤 (a traditional unit of weight) and the phonetic component 戶 (door). The character 周 means to circle or to encircle.

The character 知 means to know, to understand, or to comprehend. It is composed of the components 大 (big or large), 口 (mouth), and 子 (child or offspring).

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「眾所周知」由四個漢字組成。其中「眾」字代表群眾、多人或每個人；「所」字指地方或位置；「周」字有環繞或圍繞的意思；「知」字則表示知道、理解或領悟。

在字形結構上，「所」字包含語義成分「斤」（傳統重量單位，等於 0.5 公斤）以及音符成分「戶」；「知」字則由「大」、「口」與「子」三個部分組成。根據《國語辭典》的解釋，這個詞組的含義即為大家都知道。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • characterChinese眾 “masses; people; multitude; crowd; everyone”
  • characterChinese所 “place; location”
    • soundChinese戶 “door”
    • meaningChinese斤 “catty or jin, a traditional unit of weight, equal to 0.5 kilograms”
  • characterChinese周 “to circle; to encircle”
  • characterChinese知 “to know; to understand; to comprehend”
    • ideaChinese大 “of great size; big; large; huge”
    • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
    • ideaChinese子 “child; offspring; descendant”
Wiktionary etymology text

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Meanings

phrase
  1. as everyone knows; as is known to all; it is well-known that; it is common knowledge that

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 大家都知道。 例：在地方上，他是眾所周知的大善人。

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

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0