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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

絕

jué
to break off; to cut off; to sever
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 糸
  • 12 strokes
  • 㔃
  • 撧
  • 𫦌
  • 𪮖

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Origin

Originally ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 刀 (“knife”) + 幺 (“silk”) or ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 刀 (“knife”) + 𢆶 (“silk”) — to cut silk threads.

Now phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): semantic 糹 (“silk”) + semantic 刀 (“knife”) + phonetic 巴 (卪).

Most likely unrelated to 色.

Compare Burmese ဆွတ် (hcwat, “to pluck”) (Hill, 2019).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”
  • meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • ideaChinese幺 “tiny; minute”
  • ideaChinese𢆶 “minute; extremely small; tiny; infinitesimal”
  • soundChinese卪 “joint; node”

Related: Burmese ဆွတ်

Meanings

character
  1. to break off; to cut off; to sever
  2. to terminate; to discontinue; to break off
  3. to exhaust; to use up
  4. superb; peerless; matchless
  5. desperate; dangerous without a way out
  6. extremely; most

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

絕：斷絲也。从糸从刀从卩。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 阻斷、隔開。 例：斷絕、隔絕
  2. 停止、竭盡。 例：杜絕、滔滔不絕、絡繹不絕
  3. 回拒、不接受。 例：拒絕、謝絕
  4. 卓越、獨一無二。 例：絕技、超群絕倫、絕代風華
  5. 必定、鐵定。 例：絕對、絕無僅有
  6. 形容人舉止怪異、特殊。 例：這人可絕了！是個公認的怪人。

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

How 絕 was written 字形演變

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