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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

胸

/ɕi̯ʊŋ⁵⁵/
chest; thorax
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 肉
  • 10 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *qʰoŋ): semantic 肉 (“meat”) + phonetic 匈 (OC *qʰoŋ). 匈 is the original form of this character, with 肉 added later.

Unclear. Noting that Middle Chinese *x- could have arisen from voiceless *r̥-, Schuessler (2007) considers it either connected to Chepang रुङः (ruŋʔ, “breastbone, center of chest”) or from Austroasiatic (compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *-ruŋ (“to shield, to protect”) > Proto-Mon-Khmer *truŋ (“stable, sty, cage”) > Old Khmer [script needed] (drooŋ, “ribcage, chest, breast”) > Khmer ទ្រុង (trung, “cage”); related to 籠 (OC *roːŋ, “cage, coop”)).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese肉 “meat; flesh”
  • soundChinese匈 “Hun, Hunnic”

Related: Chepang रुङः, Proto-Mon-Khmer *-ruŋ, Proto-Mon-Khmer *truŋ, Khmer ទ្រុង

Meanings

character
  1. chest; thorax
  2. breast; bosom (Classifier: 個／个 c)
  3. mind; heart of hearts; thought

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 身體前面頸下腹上的部分。 例：挺胸、胸部、胸腔　◎
  2. 指人的內心、氣量、抱負等。 例：胸懷、心胸、胸有成竹

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

How 胸 was written 字形演變

  1. 胸 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 胸 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 胸 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 胸