西

The oracle-bone forms of 西 (OC *sˤən) fall into two types: open-topped and closed-topped. The open-topped type is found only in periods I–II, especially in the Bin and Chu groups; later scripts inherit the closed-topped type.

The open-topped form has been interpreted as a bird's nest, possibly related to 栖 (OC *sˤəj) (“to perch; to roost”). The later closed-topped form may be related to 囟 (OC *sənh): in the Zhouyuan oracle-bone inscriptions, 囟 (xìn) is used for 西 (xī).

The word is traditionally reconstructed to have a /*s/-initial in Old Chinese, e.g. /*sɯːl/ in Zhengzhang (2003). However, recent scholarship has suggested that the Old Chinese initial should instead be reconstructed as /*s-nˤ/, one of the reasons being 西 appears to be the phonetic in 迺 (nǎi), the archaic graphic variant of 乃 (OC *nɯːʔ). The new reconstruction, /*s-nˤər/ in Baxter and Sagart (2014), also accounts for how 西 can be the phonetic in 哂 (shěn, “to smile”). For more information, see Sagart (2004), Baxter and Sagart (2014) and Nohara (2018).

In light of the new construction with the initial consonant cluster /*s-nˤ/, the possibilities of the etymology of 西, aside from being cognate with 棲／栖 (qī, “to roost; to rest”) (B-S OC /*s-nˤər/), include:

* Related to Tibetan ནེར་བ (ner ba, “to sink; to fall gradually”) (Unger, 1990).

* Related to Chepang नेलःसा (nelʔ‑, “to go down; to sink”), which may be the same etymon as the Written Tibetan word above (Schuessler, 2007).

* Related to the root 尼 (nǐ, “to stop”) (OC /*nˤərʔ/ for intransitive form, /*nˤərʔ-s/ for transitive form in Baxter and Sagart (2014)).

* Related to Tibetan མནལ (mnal, “sleep”) and Burmese နား (na:, “to rest; to stop for a while”) (Hill, 2019).

* An Austroasiatic nominal n-infix derivative from the root "go down", as in Old Mon cnis (“ghat”) < Old Mon cis (“to go down”) , with Proto-Austroasiatic *tsn- > Proto-Sinitic *sn-. If true, then this etymon literally means "the place where one goes down to" > Mon "ghat" > OC "nest, west" and its base form is 濟 (OC *ʔsliːls) via Austroasiatic (Schuessler, 2007).