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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

綠

lǜ
green
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 糸
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *roɡ): semantic 糸 + phonetic 彔 (OC *b·roːɡ).

Starostin derives this from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *rwak (“leaf”), and cites Tibetan ཁྲོག་པོ (khrog po, “botanical term used of leaves standing round the stem scattered or alternately”), Burmese ရွက် (rwak), အရွက် (a.rwak, “leaf”) as cognates. Compare also Kinnauri rāgʻ (“blue, green”).

Cognate with 菉 (“name of a plant of uncertain species”). In modern times this character gave rise to 氯 (“chlorine”).

For the sense “to cuckold”, see 綠頭巾／绿头巾 (lǜtóujīn).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*rwak “leaf”
  • meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • soundChinese彔 “one by one; individually distinct and countable; used in 彔彔”

Related: Tibetan ཁྲོག་པོ, Burmese ရွက်

Meanings

character
  1. green
  2. to become green
  3. black and glossy (especially in a youthful-looking way)
  4. healthy; environmentally friendly; green
  5. green leaves
  6. green field

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 像青草、樹葉的顏色。可用藍色和黃色顏料混合而成。 例：墨綠、紅配綠、紅紅綠綠
  2. 綠色的。 例：綠苔、紅花綠葉、綠意盎然
  3. 形容因生氣、著急或受驚嚇時的臉部表情。 例：見到自家停車位又被占用時，他當場氣得臉都綠了。

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

How 綠 was written 字形演變

  1. 綠 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 綠 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 綠 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 綠 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 綠