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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

給

gěi
to give
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 糸
  • 12 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

According to Shuowen Jiezi, Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *krub): semantic 糸 + phonetic 合 (OC *kuːb, *ɡuːb) – "rich, abundant", perhaps with a reference to precious silk; today it also means "to give". The phonetic component means "to join, to unite", however it is likely unrelated to the original meaning.

Starostin reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *qǝ̆p (“to give; to supply”), comparing it to Burmese အပ် (ap, “to commit; to deliver; to hand over”), Jingpho ap (“to hand over”), Lepcha ᰀᰤᰬᰱ (kjep, “to add to; to multiply”), ᰃᰤᰱ (gjap, “many”).

In Mandarin, Jin and Xiang, pronunciations 1 and 2 are generally thought of as colloquial and literary readings respectively, from the same Middle Chinese etymon (Zhengzhang, 2002; Liu, 2021; among others). Pronunciation 2, the literary reading, is a regular reflex from Middle Chinese. However, since pronunciation 1 is highly irregular, others have proposed alternative etymologies for it:

* From the contraction of 過與 (MC kwaH yoX, “to pass to”) (Ikeda, 1962; Hirayama, 2000, 2010; Wang, 2022);

* From 乞 (MC khj+t|khj+jH, “to give”) (Zhang, 1989); and

* From 饋 (MC gwijH, “to gift”) (Shimura, 1995).

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English gay. Doublet of 基 (jī) and gay.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • soundChinese合 “to close; to shut”
    • ideaChinese亼 “mouth”
      • ideaChinese入 “to enter; to go into”
      • ideaChinese一 “one”
    • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • borrowedEnglishgay “Only possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex o…”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishgay
      • borrowedOld Frenchgai “gay, merry”
    • derivedEnglishPitman “A surname.”
      • derivedEnglishgraphically “In a graphic manner”

Related: Chinese 基 (doublet), Chinese gay (doublet), Burmese အပ်, Jingpho ap, Lepcha ᰀᰤᰬᰱ

Meanings

character
  1. to give
  2. for; for the benefit of
  3. to; with (following verbs to indicate the handing over or passing of something)
  4. to (introduce recipient of an action)
  5. by (marker of passive voice)
  6. Used in the form of 給我 in imperative sentences for emphasis.

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

給：相足也。从糸合聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 供應。 例：供給、補給、自給自足
  2. 授與、賜予。 例：給與
  3. 軍公教人員的薪俸。 例：俸給、年給
  4. 敏捷、伶俐。 例：生性敏給、口才辨給

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

How 給 was written 字形演變

  1. 給 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 給 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 給 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: 給