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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

約

yuē
to bundle up; to bind
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 糸
  • 9 strokes
  • yurk

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ʔlewɢs, *ʔlewɢ): semantic 糸 (“rope”) + phonetic 勺 (OC *pljewɢ, *bljewɢ).

According to Schuessler (2007), related to Tibetan ཡོག (yog, “to wind thread around”). Note also Burmese ယောက် (yauk, “to wind thread around a spool”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • soundChinese勺 “spoon; ladle (Classifier: 把 m)”

Related: Tibetan ཡོག, Burmese ယောက်

Words built on it: 葯

Meanings

character
  1. to bundle up; to bind
  2. rope; cord
  3. to restrain; to limit; to keep under control
  4. to make an appointment; to arrange
  5. appointment; meeting; arrangement
  6. treaty; agreement; covenant; pact; contract

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

約：纏束也。从糸勺聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 協議、預先說定。 例：預約、約會、約定
  2. 預先說定共同遵守之事。 例：合約、毀約、條約
  3. 邀請。 例：邀約、特約、約請
  4. 限制、管束。 例：約束
  5. 儉省。 例：節約、儉約
  6. 大略、大概。 例：約計、約略

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

How 約 was written 字形演變

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