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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

積

jī
to store up crops; to store cereal crops
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 禾
  • 16 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ʔseɡs, *ʔseɡ): semantic 禾 + phonetic 責 (OC *ʔsreːɡ).

* (to collect; to accumulate): Cognate with Tibetan རྩིག་པ (rtsig pa) (Schuessler, 2007).

* (jack; knave, to jack): From English jack.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • borrowedEnglishjack “A coarse medieval coat of defence, especially one made of leather.”
    • derivedEnglishJack “A unisex given name derived from a pet form of the name John. Occasionally a diminutive of other gi…”
      • inheritedMiddle EnglishJackin
    • inheritedMiddle Englishjakke
      • borrowedAnglo-Normanjacke
      • borrowedMiddle Frenchjaque
    • borrowedPortuguesejaca “jackfruit”
      • derivedMalayalamചക്ക
  • meaningChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
  • soundChinese責 “to demand; to ask for (something)”
    • soundChinese朿
    • meaningChinese貝 “shellfish; cowrie”

Related: Tibetan རྩིག་པ

Meanings

character
  1. to store up crops; to store cereal crops
  2. to accumulate; to amass; to store; to gather
  3. to hold in store; to store up (for future use); to be latent
  4. to stagnate; to become stagnant
  5. to add up; to sum up to
  6. accumulated goods

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

積：聚也。从禾責聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 聚集、儲存。 例：累積、淤積、積少成多
  2. 長期累聚的。 例：積習、積弊、積怨
  3. 數與數相乘的得數。如三乘五等於十五，十五為「積」。

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

How 積 was written 字形演變

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