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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

緊

jǐn
tense; tight; taut; tightly
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 糸
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kinʔ): phonetic 臤 (OC *kʰaːn, *kʰriːn, *ɡiːn, *kʰins) + semantic 糸.

Etymology 2

Possibly from earlier 近處／近处 (gan6-2 cyu3, gan6-2 syu3, “future marker expressing the imminent aspect”) (Kataoka, 2018).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese臤 “firm and solid; rigid; stable”
  • meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”

Meanings

character
  1. tense; tight; taut; tightly
  2. firm; secure
  3. to tighten
  4. strict
  5. pressing; urgent
  6. short of money; hard up

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

緊：纏絲急也。从臤，从絲省。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 物體因四周受力大，而呈現堅實密合的狀態。與「鬆」相對。 例：繫緊鞋帶、握緊筆桿、衣服緊窄　◎
  2. 物體因受外在拉力，而呈現緊張的狀態。 例：繃緊鼓面、拉緊繩子
  3. 靠得近。 例：緊鄰、緊挨著
  4. 使緊。 例：緊一緊琴絃
  5. 嚴密、牢固。 例：緊防、看緊、管得很緊
  6. 急迫、急促。 例：緊急、緊要、趕緊

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

How 緊 was written 字形演變

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