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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

種

zhǒng
seed; kernel; cereal
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 禾
  • 14 strokes

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  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tjoŋʔ, *tjoŋs): semantic 禾 + phonetic 重 (OC *doŋ, *doŋʔ, *doŋs).

Perhaps Sino-Tibetan: Chepang [script needed] (tuŋʔ-, “to plant”), दुङ् (duŋ, “shoot; sprout”), दुङ्सा (duŋ-, “to sprout; to grow”). Compare 腫 (OC *tjoŋʔ, “to swell”) and 踵 (OC *tjoŋʔ, “heel”).

Related to Proto-Vietic *k-coːŋʔ (“seed”) (Vietnamese giống (“seed”)), which is likely a loanword from Chinese (Wang, 1948).

Pronunciation 2 (“to sow; to plant”) is the exoactive derivation of pronunciation 1 (“seed”) formed with the Old Chinese suffix *-s.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
  • soundChinese重 “heavy”
    • meaningChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    • soundChinese東 “east”

Related: Proto-Vietic *k-coːŋʔ, Vietnamese giống

Words built on it: 种

Meanings

character
  1. seed; kernel; cereal
  2. clan; ethnic group; ethnicity; race
  3. species; breed
  4. kind; sort; type
  5. Classifier for varieties: kind; sort; type ⇒ all nouns using this classifier
  6. guts; grit

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

種：先穜後孰也。从禾重聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 把種子或根埋在土裡，使其生長。 例：種樹、種花、種植　◎
  2. 把疫苗注入人或動物體內，以產生抗體。 例：種牛痘、接種疫苗

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

How 種 was written 字形演變

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