源etymfun
About

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

英

yīng
flower; blossom
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • radical 艸
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *qraŋ): semantic 艹 (“grass”) + phonetic 央 (OC *qaŋ).

Uncertain. There are several possibilities:

* Of Sino-Tibetan origin, related to Mizo ân (“to open the mouth to receive food, to open to”), âng (“to open (mouth), to gape with open mouth”); if so, this word would come from the idea of an open flower (Schuessler, 2007);

* Related to Mizo êng (“light”), ên (“to shine, to give light, bright, brilliant”) (Schuessler, 2007);

* Related to Proto-Bahnaric *ʔaːŋ (“bright”) (from Proto-Mon-Khmer *cʔaiŋ (“light, to shine”)), which may be also/instead related to 影 (OC *qraŋʔ, “shadow”) (Schuessler, 2007);

* Related to 秧 (OC *qaŋ, *qaŋʔ, “rice seedling”) (Sagart, 2011).

Etymology 2

Short form of 英吉利 (Yīngjílì, “England”) or 英格蘭 /英格兰 (Yīnggélán, “England”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese艸 “grass”
  • soundChinese央 “center; middle”

Related: Mizo ân, Mizo êng, Proto-Bahnaric *ʔaːŋ, Proto-Mon-Khmer *cʔaiŋ

Words built on it: 英文, 英雄

Meanings

character
  1. flower; blossom
  2. outstanding
  3. fine; excellent
  4. finest part; quintessence
  5. hero; outstanding person
  6. panache on a lance

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

英：艸榮而不實者。一曰黃英。从艸央聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 花。 例：落英繽紛
  2. 物質的精華部分。 例：菁英
  3. 美好的。 例：英名
  4. 賢明的。 例：英明
  5. 才德出眾的人。 例：群英、菁英
  6. 大不列顛與北愛爾蘭聯合王國的簡稱。 例：英國、英鎊

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

How 英 was written 字形演變

  1. 英 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 英 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 英 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 英 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 英 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: 英