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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

系

xì
department; faculty
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 糸
  • 7 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): abbreviated 手 + 糸. Also used as simplified forms:

* Simplified from 繫 (𣪠 → 丿) (through an intermediate form 毄).

* Simplified from 係 (elimination of 人).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese係 “to relate; to bear on”
    • meaningChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • simplified fromChinese繫 “to tie, to fasten, to button up”
    • soundChinese毄 “to hit against; to collide with; to strike”
      • ideaChinese軎 “axle tip”
      • ideaChinese殳 “shu (an ancient Chinese weapon)”
        • ideaChinese𠘧 “used in 𠘧𠘧; refers to the wings of a bird in flight (according to the Shuowen Jiezi)”
        • ideaChinese又 “again; once more”
  • ideaChinese手 “hand (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn; 雙／双 m mn; 對／对 c)”
  • ideaChinese糸 “thin silk”

Words built on it: 系列, 系統

Meanings

character
  1. department; faculty
  2. system
  3. to belong to; to be part of; to fall under; to be categorised as; to be classified as
  4. warlord clique (only used in compounds.)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

系：繋也。从糸丿聲。凡系之屬皆从系。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 有一定秩序或聯屬關係的整體或組織。 例：世系、太陽系、直系血親
  2. 大學中所分的學術科別。 例：中文系、哲學系、物理系

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

How 系 was written 字形演變

  1. 系 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 系 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 系 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 系