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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

行

xíng
to walk
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 行
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Pictogram (象形) – a street intersection. Original form of 行 (OC *ɡaːŋ, “place”). Later phonetically borrowed to represent 行 (OC *ɡaːŋs, “to go”).

Originally symmetric, it has been simplified asymmetrically; the left half 彳 (chì) is widely used as a radical, while the right half 亍 (chù) finds occasional use, and the character can be broken up as 彳 + 亍, though originally it was not a compound.

Schuessler (2007) tentatively considers the word to be borrowed from Mon-Khmer; compare Khmer រង (rɔɔng, “ridge, gutter”). Note also similarities to Burmese ကျင့် (kyang., “to practice”) (Luce, 1981).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • componentChinese彳 “to walk slowly”
  • componentChinese亍 “to stop; to stand still”

Related: Khmer រង, Burmese ကျင့်

Words built on it: 道, 街, 旅行, 流行, 衕, 行李, 不行, 行人, 術, 進行, 旅行社, 銀行

Meanings

character
  1. to walk
  2. trip; journey
  3. travel
  4. temporary; makeshift
  5. to go
  6. to navigate

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

行：人之步趨也。从彳从亍。凡行之屬皆从行。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 品德、操守。 例：品行、操行、德行

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

How 行 was written 字形演變

  1. 行 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 行 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 行 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 行 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 行 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 行 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: 行