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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

自相殘殺

/t͡sɹ̩⁵¹ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵⁵ t͡sʰän³⁵ ʂä⁵⁵/
to slaughter each other; to massacre one another
  • 自相残杀
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Etymology graph

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Origin

The phrase is composed of four characters. 自 means self, oneself, or one's own. 相 means to see for oneself or to evaluate by seeing for oneself; it is formed from the components 木 (tree; woody plant) and 目 (eye). 殘 means to damage or to destroy, consisting of the semantic component 歹 (bone remnants) and the phonetic component 戔 (the original form of 殘/残, meaning to harm or to injure).

殺 means to kill or to murder. It contains the component 人 (man; person; people), the component 又 (again; once more), and the phonetic component 𣏂. It also includes the semantic component 殳 (an ancient Chinese weapon), which is itself formed from the component 又 (again; once more) and 𠘧 (referring to the wings of a bird in flight).

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese自 “self, oneself; one's own”
  • characterChinese相 “to see for oneself; to evaluate by seeing for oneself”
    • ideaChinese木 “tree; woody plant”
    • ideaChinese目 “eye (Classifier: 雙／双 mn-t)”
  • characterChinese殘 “to damage; to destroy”
    • meaningChinese歹 “bone remnants”
    • soundChinese戔 “original form of 殘／残 (cán, “to harm; to injure”)”
  • characterChinese殺 “to kill; to murder”
    • componentChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    • soundChinese𣏂
    • componentChinese又 “again; once more”
    • meaningChinese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)”
Wiktionary etymology text

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Meanings

phrase
  1. to slaughter each other; to massacre one another

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 同種類的動物或同一陣營的人互相殺害。 例：災荒地區的居民，常因爭奪食物而自相殘殺。

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

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0