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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

聯

lián
to connect; to join
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 耳
  • 17 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 耳 (“ear”) + 絲 (“silk”).

According to Duan Yucai, 聯 and 連 /连 are two characters for the same word, with the former used in the Zhou dynasty and the latter in the Han dynasty.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-rjan (“equal; to place in a row; to align; row”); related to 連 (OC *ren) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese耳 “ear”
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*s-rjan “equal; to place in a row; to align; row”
  • ideaChinese絲 “silk (fibre, cloth, fabrics, etc.)”
    • ideaChinese糸 “thin silk”

Meanings

character
  1. to connect; to join
  2. to associate; to ally
  3. to sew; to stitch
  4. couplet

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

聯：連也。从耳，耳連於頰也；从絲，絲連不絕也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 連接、接續。 例：蟬聯、綿聯
  2. 集結、結合。 例：聯署、聯姻、珠聯璧合
  3. 詩文中互相對仗的上下兩句。 例：對聯、門聯
  4. 量詞。計算票券等分聯的單位。 例：開立一式三聯的統一發票。

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

How 聯 was written 字形演變

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