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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

立

lì
to stand
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 立
  • 5 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形) – a person standing on the ground; compare 大 and 文.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kV-r(j)əp (“to stand”). Cognate with 位 (OC *ɢʷrɯbs).

Etymology 2

From English litre.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese亠 “couvercle (Kangxi radical)”
  • partChinese丷 “Component variant of 八.”
  • partChinese一 “one”
  • borrowedEnglishlitre “The metric unit of fluid measure, equal to one cubic decimetre. Symbol: L, l, or ℓ.”
    • borrowedSpanishlitre
    • borrowedFrenchlitre
      • derivedMedieval Latinlitra

Words built on it: 位, 站, 拉, 建立, 成立, 龍, 立刻, 音, 立即, 章, 端

Meanings

character
  1. to stand
  2. to erect
  3. to set up; to establish
  4. to institute; to lay down; to draw up; to compose (legal document)
  5. to exist; to live
  6. standing

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

立：住也。从大立一之上。凡立之屬皆从立。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 直身站著。 例：站立、立正
  2. 豎起。 例：豎立、立竿見影
  3. 設置。 例：公立、設立
  4. 制定、訂定。 例：立法、立案、立約
  5. 建樹、成就。 例：立威、成家立業
  6. 存在。 例：獨立、誓不兩立

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

How 立 was written 字形演變

  1. 立 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 立 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 立 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 立 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 立 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 立 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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 立