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

知

zhī
to know; to understand; to comprehend
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 矢
  • 8 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

Originally the same character as 智, used interchangeably. In oracle bone inscriptions, ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 大 (“adult”) + 口 (“mouth”) + 子 (“child”) – to transmit knowledge. In the Warring States period, 大 corrupted into 矢 (OC *hliʔ) and became a sound component. In Western Han script the component 子 started being dropped, arriving at the modern form.

The two pronunciations are cognate. The word is possibly of Sino-Tibetan origin, compare Mizo hria, hriat (“to know”), Jingpho chye (“to know”), Tibetan རིག (rig, “to know”) (Schuessler, 2007). Cognate with 智 (OC *ʔl'es).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • 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”

Related: Mizo hria, Jingpho chye, Tibetan རིག

Words built on it: 知道, 通知

Meanings

character
  1. to know; to understand; to comprehend
  2. to cause to know; to tell; to inform
  3. to administer; to take charge of
  4. to distinguish
  5. to appreciate
  6. to be close friends; close friends

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

知：詞也。从口从矢。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 智慧。通「智」。 例：仁者樂山，知者樂水

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

How 知 was written 字形演變

  1. 知 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 知 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 知 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 知 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: 知