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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

神

shén
god; deity; spirit
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 示
  • 10 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hlin): semantic 示 (“god; deity”) + phonetic 申 (OC *hlin, “lightning”).

Originally 申 in the oracle bone script and in some bronze inscriptions. The ancients feared the unpredictable lightning and considered it to be divine or of divine origin. 示 was added for specialization.

Possibly Sino-Tibetan; compare Chepang ग्लीङ्ह (gliŋh, “spirit, mind, soul”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese示 “to show; to reveal; to indicate; to notify; to instruct”
  • soundChinese申 “original form of 電／电 (diàn, “lightning”)”

Words built on it: 精神, 神秘, 神奇

Meanings

character
  1. god; deity; spirit
  2. God
  3. spirit; soul; mind
  4. expression; countenance; appearance
  5. supernatural; magic; psychic
  6. extraordinary; unbelievable; sublime

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 天地萬物的創造者與主宰者稱為「神」。 例：天神、海神、山神
  2. 人的精氣或注意力。 例：留神、傷神、聚精會神
  3. 稀奇、玄妙、不平凡的。 例：神童、神奇、神機妙算

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

How 神 was written 字形演變

  1. 神 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 神 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 神 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 神 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 神 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 神