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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

表

biǎo
outer garment
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 衣
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Originally 𧘝, an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 衣 (“garment; clothing”) + 毛 (“hair; feather”) — outer garment.

Officially adopted as the simplified form of 錶 (etymology 2) in the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (《漢字簡化方案》) in 1956.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese錶 “watch (portable timepiece) (Classifier: 塊／块 m)”
    • partChinese釒 “Left radical form of 金”
  • ideaChinese衣 “garment; clothes; clothing (Classifier: 件)”
  • ideaChinese毛 “hair (of humans or animals); fur; feather (Classifier: 根 m; 條／条 c; 支 mn)”

Words built on it: 表示, 代表, 表演, 表面, 表明, 表情, 表格

Meanings

character
  1. outer garment
  2. surface; outside; exterior
  3. table; list (Classifier: 個／个 m c)
  4. form (blank document to be filled in) (Classifier: 張／张 m c g; 份 m c)
  5. to show; to express; to display
  6. model; example

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 事物外在的一面。 例：外表、虛有其表、出人意表
  2. 傳達、宣布、告訴。 例：表示、略表心意
  3. 模範、榜樣。 例：表率、為人師表
  4. 分格或分類分項以列記事物的文件。 例：報表、課表、統計表
  5. 表親。用以稱呼父親或祖父的姊妹、母親或祖母的兄弟姊妹生的子女。 例：姑表、姨表、老表
  6. 計時器或計量器。 例：鐘表、電表　△錶

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

How 表 was written 字形演變

  1. 表 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 表 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 表 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 表 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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 表