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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

聽

tīng
to listen; to hear; to listen to (radio, etc.)
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 耳
  • 22 strokes

Etymology graph

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

The Chinese character 聽 [tīng], meaning to listen, hear, obey, or allow, originated as an ideogrammic compound consisting of 耳 (ear) and 口 (mouth). The Shuowen Jiezi glosses the character as 聆也 (to listen), noting it follows the components 耳 and 㥁, with 壬 as the phonetic. It was later rewritten as a phono-semantic compound using the phonetic 𡈼 (OC *l̥ʰeːŋʔ) alongside the semantic components 耳 (ear) and 㥁.

Traditionally, the character is considered to share the same origin as 聖 (OC *hljeŋs, “to hear; wise; sage”) and 聲 (OC *qʰjeŋ, “sound”). It may also be related to 聆 (OC *reːŋ, “to hear; to listen”). Outside of Chinese, connections are unclear, though Proto-Hlai *hliːŋ (from Pre-Hlai *(h)leːŋ) also means “to hear (it said).”

The simplified version, 听, is unrelated to the original character. Additionally, the character has been borrowed from the English word tin.

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

Lineage

  • ideaChinese耳 “ear”
  • soundChinese𡈼 “original form of 挺 (tǐng)”
  • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
  • meaningChinese㥁
  • borrowedEnglishtin “A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn.”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishtin
      • inheritedOld Englishtin “tin”

Words built on it: 听, 廳

Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Originally 𦔻, hence ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 耳 (“ear”) + 口 (“mouth(s)”) – to listen. Compare the top component of 聖.

Later, rewritten as phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l̥ʰeːŋ, *l̥ʰeːŋs): phonetic 𡈼 (OC *l̥ʰeːŋʔ) + semantic 耳 (“ear”) + semantic 㥁 on the right.

The simplified version, 𠯸 (later stylized as 听), is totally unrelated to the original character and it originally means "smiling".

This is traditionally considered to have the same origin as 聖 (OC *hljeŋs, “to hear; wise; sage”) and 聲 (OC *qʰjeŋ, “sound”). Additionally, it may be also related to 聆 (OC *reːŋ, “to hear; to listen”) (Wang, 1982).

Outside connections unclear, although note Proto-Hlai *hliːŋ (“to hear (it said)”) from Pre-Hlai *(h)leːŋ (Norquest, 2007).

Derivatives:

* 廳 (OC *l̥ʰeːŋ, “hall, i.e. where hearings take place”)

* 廷 (OC *l'eːŋ, *l'eːŋʔ, “palace courtyard”).

Etymology 2

From English tin.

Etymology 3

See 聽日 /听日 (ting¹ jat⁶).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. to listen; to hear; to listen to (radio, etc.)
  2. to obey; to heed
  3. to allow; to let
  4. a thousand of a currency denomination
  5. to smell
  6. to pick up the phone

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

聽：聆也。从耳、㥁，壬聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 治理、處理。 例：垂簾聽政
  2. 裁決、裁斷。 例：聽獄、聽訟
  3. 任由、任憑。 例：聽其自然、悉聽尊便、聽天由命

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

How 聽 was written 字形演變

  1. 聽 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 聽 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 聽 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 聽 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 聽