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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

羊

yáng
caprid (e.g. sheep, goat, antelope, etc.) (Classifier: 隻／只 m c)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 羊
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形) – picture of a ram's head. See also the original version of 沈.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *jaŋ (“sheep”). Cognate with Tibetan གཡང་དཀར (g.yang dkar), Tangut 𗂽 (*ꞏjij², “sheep”), and Northern Tujia zo³⁵ (“goat; sheep”).

Etymology 2

Orthographic borrowing from translingual ¥. Perhaps influenced by 大洋 (dàyáng).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese丷 “Component variant of 八.”
  • partChinese三 “three”
  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”
  • borrowedTranslingual¥

Related: Tibetan གཡང་དཀར, Tangut 𗂽, Northern Tujia zo³⁵

Words built on it: 美, 養, 群, 義, 鮮

Meanings

character
  1. caprid (e.g. sheep, goat, antelope, etc.) (Classifier: 隻／只 m c)
  2. Goat; Ram; Sheep (Chinese zodiac sign)
  3. COVID-19 positive individual
  4. a surname, Yang

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

羊：祥也。从𦫳，象頭角足尾之形。孔子曰：“牛羊之字以形舉也。”凡羊之屬皆从羊。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 泛稱哺乳綱偶蹄目牛科部分動物。如綿羊、山羊、羚羊等。皮、毛、角、骨都具利用價值，肉、乳可供人食用。
  2. 姓。

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

How 羊 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 羊