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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

短

duǎn
short (of distance)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 矢
  • 12 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *toːnʔ): semantic 矢 + phonetic 豆 (OC *doːs).

The Proto-Min reconstructed form is *toiᴮ (Bodman, 1980). The relationship of this to the -n forms in other dialects is unclear and two theories exist:

* Old Chinese *tˤorʔ divergently developed into (1) *toj in southeastern China, and (2) *ton elsewhere (Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Compare also:

** 端 (OC *tˤor) vs 瑞 (OC *[d]or-s)

** 算 (OC *[s]ˤorʔ-s)

** 卵 (OC *k.rˤorʔ).

* Proto-Min may represent the original Old Chinese form, and the forms in other Chinese varieties are due to confusion with 斷 (OC *toːnʔ, *toːns, *doːnʔ, “to cut”) (Schuessler, 2007).

STEDT sets up two roots for this: Proto-Sino-Tibetan *t(j)u(ŋ/n) (“short”), whence Burmese တောင်း (taung:, “short (as in garment)”), and *dəw (“short”), whence Burmese တို (tui, “short”), Mizo tawi (“short”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*t(j)u(ŋ/n) “short”
  • meaningChinese矢 “arrow”
  • soundChinese豆 “pod-bearing plant or its seeds; bean; pea (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 粒 m)”

Related: Burmese တောင်း, Burmese တို, Mizo tawi

Words built on it: 短期, 短信

Meanings

character
  1. short (of distance)
  2. short (of time); brief
  3. short (in stature)
  4. deficient; lacking
  5. weakness; shortcoming; mistake
  6. to text; to send a text message to

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

短：有所長短，以矢爲正。从矢豆聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 事物兩端的距離小的。與「長」相對
  2. 缺少。 例：事情就算短他一個，照樣得如期完成。
  3. 過失、缺點。 例：護短、說長道短、截長補短

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

How 短 was written 字形演變

  1. 短 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 短 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 短 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: 短