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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

老

lǎo
old; aged; senior; elderly
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 老
  • 6 strokes

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Origin

The character 老 is an ideogrammic compound (會意) composed of the elements 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (a kind of spoon in ancient China). According to the Shuowen Jiezi, the character consists of 人, 毛, and 匕, and it signifies that hair has turned white. It is described as meaning 考, and notes that seventy is the age called 老.

The origin is unknown, though it is considered a cognate to the Proto-Sino-Tibetan reconstruction *s-raw (withered, residue, corpse). It is also possibly related to *rwat (stiff, tough), which connects to the Burmese ရော် (rau, “wither, become overripe; age”) and ရွတ် (rwat, “old, stiff, tough”). Additionally, 老 is a cognate to 考 and is cited as an example of reciprocal meaning (轉注). An old Sino-Vietnamese borrowing is rệu (overripe, pulpy).

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「老」字在字形構成上屬於會意字，由「人」、「毛」與「匕」組成。根據《說文解字》的解釋，此字由人、毛、匕構成，用以表示須髮變白，並指出「七十曰老」。在字義層面，它除了指代年紀大、與「少」相對的人，亦可用作對長輩的尊稱，或形容經驗豐富、熟練，以及事物陳舊。

關於其來源，目前尚不明確。在原始漢藏語（Proto-Sino-Tibetan）中，可能與 *s-raw（意為枯萎、殘餘、屍體）或 *rwat（意為僵硬、堅韌）有關。此外，它與緬甸語中的 ရော်（意為枯萎、過熟、老化）以及 ရွတ်（意為老、僵硬、堅韌）互為同源詞。在漢越語中，有一個古老的借詞 rệu（意為過熟、軟爛）。在漢語內部，此字被視為與「考」具有轉注關係的同源詞。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • ideaChinese毛 “hair (of humans or animals); fur; feather (Classifier: 根 m; 條／条 c; 支 mn)”
  • ideaChinese匕 “a kind of spoon in ancient China”

Related: Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-raw, Burmese ရော်

Words built on it: 老人, 老婆, 老公, 老是, 老師, 老百姓, 老年, 古老, 老朋友, 老家

Wiktionary etymology text

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 人 (“man”) + 毛 (“hair”) + 匕 (“cane”) – a man with long hair (an old man), leaning on a cane. Compare top component to 孝 (OC *qʰruːs).

Cognate to 考 (OC *kʰluːʔ); the most commonly cited example of 轉注 (“reciprocal meaning”).

Unknown. Compare Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-raw (“withered, residue, corpse”), *rwat (“stiff, tough”), whence Burmese ရော် (rau, “wither, become overripe; age”), ရွတ် (rwat, “old, stiff, tough”). See also 古 (gǔ), 故 (gù).

An old Sino-Vietnamese borrowing is rệu (“overripe, pulpy”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. old; aged; senior; elderly
  2. old (as opposed to new); of long standing
  3. outdated; old-fashioned
  4. original; former
  5. the elderly; one's elders
  6. Used after the surname of an old person to address a venerable old person

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

老：考也。七十曰老。从人、毛、匕。言須髮變白也。凡老之屬皆从老。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 年紀大的。與「少」相對。 例：年老、老兵、老人　◎
  2. 對長輩的尊稱。 例：劉老、于老、國之大老
  3. 熟練、經驗豐富。 例：老手、老練、老江湖
  4. 陳舊的。 例：老式、老套、老交情
  5. 原來的。 例：老家、老地方、老規矩
  6. 總是、常常。 例：凡事想想自己，別老挑人毛病。

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

How 老 was written 字形演變

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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 老