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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

號

hào
name; alias
  • ideogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 虍
  • 13 strokes
  • 号

Etymology graph

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

to roar; to shout". Later forms added 口 or 言 to emphasize the act of calling. The Shuowen Jiezi glosses the character as 號：呼也 (號: to call). The meaning has extended to include name, alias, art name, to order, to command, shop, store, and the size or grade of items. One pronunciation is an exopassive derivation of the other, literally meaning "what is called".

Historically, the character was inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kaw ("to call"). It is a cognate of Kinnauri ku, Anong go, and Burmese ခေါ် (hkau). The extension of the meaning from "shout, call" to "ask, request" is parallel to 呼 (hū). The character has been attested in bronze, qin, seal, and regular scripts.

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

「號」字最早可能是一個指事字，描繪老虎咆哮時吐出的氣息，用以表示「咆哮」或「大聲叫喊」。後來的字形加入了「口」或「言」來強調呼喊的動作。根據《說文解字》，此字為「呼也」，結構上從「号」從「虎」。在目前的字形中，它是一個會意與形聲字，由表示「哀號」的形聲字「号」（上古音 *ɦlaːws）與表示「老虎」的意符「虎」組成。

從字源演變來看，「号」字由「口」與代表氣息釋放的「丂」組成，而「丂」則由「𠃑」與「一」構成。根據 Schuessler (2007) 的研究，「號」繼承自原始漢藏語 *kaw（意為「呼喚」），與 Kinnauri 語的 ku、Anong 語的 go 以及緬甸語的 ခေါ် 互為同源詞。其意義從「呼喊、呼喚」延伸至「要求、請求」，此發展與「呼」字相似。此外，第一種讀音是從第二種讀音衍生的外被動形式，字面意義為「所謂的」。

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

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*kaw “to call”
  • soundChinese号 “to wail”
    • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
    • ideaChinese丂 “the appearance of air which is to be released”
      • componentChinese𠃑
      • componentChinese一 “one”
  • meaningChinese虎 “tiger (Classifier: 隻／只 mn)”

Related: Kinnauri ku, Anong go, Burmese ခေါ်

Wiktionary etymology text

Originally an ideogram (指事) of a tiger with a line representing exhaled air while roaring, thus meaning "to roar; to shout". Later forms added 口 (“mouth”) or 言 (“speech”) to emphasize the act of crying or calling. 号 derives from 口 and the line 丂.

In the current form, an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɦlaːw, *ɦlaːws): phonetic 号 (OC *ɦlaːws, “to wail”) + semantic 虎 (“tiger”).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kaw (“to call”) (Schuessler, 2007, STEDT). Compare Kinnauri ku, Anong go, and Burmese ခေါ် (hkau). The extension of the meaning ‘shout, call’ to ‘ask, request’ is parallel to 呼 (hū).

Pronunciation 1 is the exopassive derivation of pronunciation 2, literally "what is called".

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. name; alias
  2. art name
  3. to order; to command
  4. shop; store
  5. mark; symbol
  6. number

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

號：呼也。从号从虎。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 名稱、別名。 例：別號、帝號、國號
  2. 命令。 例：號令、發號施令
  3. 商店。 例：寶號、公司行號
  4. 物品的大小等級。 例：特大號、家庭號、五號鉛字
  5. 標誌、標記。 例：記號、暗號、問號
  6. 排定的次第。 例：座號、流水號、第三號

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

How 號 was written 字形演變

  1. 號 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 號 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 號 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 號 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: 號