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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

聲

shēng
sound; noise; voice (Classifier: 把 c)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 耳
  • 17 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *qʰjeŋ): phonetic 殸 (OC *kʰreːŋ, *kʰeːŋs) + semantic 耳 (“ear”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese殸 “enemy”
    • ideaChinese声 “stone chime”
    • ideaChinese殳 “shu (an ancient Chinese weapon)”
      • ideaChinese𠘧 “used in 𠘧𠘧; refers to the wings of a bird in flight (according to the Shuowen Jiezi)”
      • ideaChinese又 “again; once more”
  • meaningChinese耳 “ear”

Words built on it: 聲音

Meanings

character
  1. sound; noise; voice (Classifier: 把 c)
  2. music
  3. words; speech
  4. to make a sound; to sound
  5. reputation
  6. news; messages

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

聲：音也。从耳殸聲。殸，籒文磬。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 物體撞擊或摩擦所產生，經空氣傳到內耳，而引起聽覺的音波。 例：笑聲、雷聲、人聲 鼎沸
  2. 音樂。 例：秦聲、鄭聲、新聲
  3. 發言、張揚。 例：聲明、聲請、聲罪致討
  4. 名譽。 例：政聲、名聲大振
  5. 音調。漢字字音的高低長短。如中古音有平聲、上聲、去聲、入聲四個聲調。
  6. 量詞。計算發聲次數的單位。 例：大叫一聲、三聲無奈

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

How 聲 was written 字形演變

  1. 聲 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 聲 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 聲 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 聲 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 聲