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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

葉

yè
leaf; petal (Classifier: 塊／块 c; 片 c)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • radical 艸
  • 13 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *hljeb, *leb): semantic 艸 + phonetic 枼 (“leaf”). 枼 is the original pictogram for this word; 艸 was added to differentiate.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *lap (“leaf”). Cognate with Tibetan ལོ་མ (lo ma, “leaf”), Western Tibetan ལོབ་མ (lob ma, “leaf”), Jingpho lap (“leaf”). Related to 世 (OC *hljebs, “world”).

This is part of the word family *lVp meaning “flat”, represented by the phonetic component 枼 (OC *leb). Compare also 茶 (OC *rlaː, “tea < *leaf”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*lap “leaf”
  • meaningChinese艸 “grass”
  • soundChinese枼 “thin woodchip”

Related: Tibetan ལོ་མ, Tibetan ལོབ་མ, Jingpho lap

Meanings

character
  1. leaf; petal (Classifier: 塊／块 c; 片 c)
  2. era; epoch
  3. leaf-like thing
  4. Classifier for small boats.
  5. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

葉：艸木之葉也。从艸枼聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 植物的一部分。生於枝幹上，具有呼吸、蒸發等作用，部分植物的葉子則因變態而具有貯藏、保護或捕食的功能。
  2. 像葉片的東西。 例：肺葉
  3. 世代、時期。 例：唐代中葉、十五世紀末葉
  4. 量詞
  5. 姓。

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

How 葉 was written 字形演變

  1. 葉 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 葉 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 葉 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 葉 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 葉