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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

秀

xiù
to shoot out into ears; earing; ear
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 4
  • radical 禾
  • 7 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Etymology 1

From an earlier form 𥝙, attested in the stone drum inscriptions (石鼓文 (shígǔwén)) from the Warring States period.

According to Chi (2010), the character is an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 禾 (“rice plant”) + 引 (“to draw out flowers”) — blooming of a rice plant. The Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts (睡簡) recorded this character as ⿱禾引. The bottom component 弓 found in the stone drum inscriptions is likely a reduction of 引.

Xu Kai (徐鍇), the author of 《說文解字繫傳》 (10th century AD) gave the following explanation: Pictogram (象形): 禾 (“plant”) + 乃, resembling a fruit/an ear hanging off a plant.

Shuowen states that this character was tabooed at that time (2nd century AD) and so did not elaborate on its origin, due to it being the birth name of Emperor Guangwu of Han.

Schuessler (2007) implicitly connects Proto-Tibeto-Burman *h(r)u (“to blow, breathe; life”), via comparison with Chepang स्यु (syu-, “to prosper, flourish”). If so, compare Burmese ရှူ (hru, “to breathe, inhale”).

Alternatively, perhaps a causative of 褎 (OC *lɯws, “growth of seedlings”). Compare Proto-Vietic *m-loh (“to blossom”) (whence Vietnamese trổ (“to burst, to open, to display”), lổ (“naked”)), and Khmer លាស់ (lŏəh, “to grow, to blossom, to prosper”). Schuessler prefers the Sino-Tibetan theory above to this theory, however.

Etymology 2

Phono-semantic matching of English show. Doublet of 騷 /骚 (sāo)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
  • ideaChinese引 “to pull; to draw (a bow)”
    • ideaChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
    • ideaChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”
  • componentChinese乃 “you, your”
  • borrowedEnglishshow “To display, convey or exhibit; to have something available for others to see; to direct attention t…”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishschewen
      • inheritedOld Englishscēawian
    • inheritedMiddle Englishschewe
    • borrowedEnglishtalk “To communicate, usually by means of speech.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishtalken
      • inheritedMiddle Englishtalk

Related: Chinese 騷 (doublet), Proto-Tibeto-Burman *h(r)u, Chepang स्यु, Burmese ရှူ, Proto-Vietic *m-loh, Vietnamese trổ, Khmer លាស់

Words built on it: 透

Meanings

character
  1. to shoot out into ears; earing; ear
  2. to bear fruit
  3. to blossom
  4. beautiful; elegant; graceful
  5. outstanding; prominent; extraordinary

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

秀：上諱。漢光武帝名也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 稻麥等穀類所吐的穗或草木所開的花。 例：麥秀、蘭秀
  2. 優異、傑出。 例：優秀、秀士、秀才
  3. 才智傑出的人。 例：後起之秀
  4. 清麗、俊美。 例：娟秀、清秀、山明水秀
  5. 表演、展現。§英show 例：做秀、歌舞秀、秀球技

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

How 秀 was written 字形演變

  1. 秀 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 秀 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 秀 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 秀 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: 秀