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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

視

shì
to watch; to look; to view; to look at; compare 見 /见 (“to see”).
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 見
  • 12 strokes
  • 眡

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡljilʔ, *ɡljils, *ɢljils): phonetic 示 (OC *ɡle, *ɢljils) + semantic 見 (“see”).

Related to 見 (“to see; to meet”). The Chu form did not include the phonetic 示 component, making it near-identical to 見, but with the lower component a kneeling figure rather than a standing one. (Galambos, 2006)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese示 “to show; to reveal; to indicate; to notify; to instruct”
  • meaningChinese見 “to see”
    • componentChinese目 “eye (Classifier: 雙／双 mn-t)”
    • componentChinese卩 “kneeling person”

Meanings

character
  1. to watch; to look; to view; to look at; compare 見 /见 (“to see”).
  2. to inspect; to examine
  3. to regard as; to consider as; to take as
  4. to visit
  5. to follow the example of; to take as one's model; to pattern after; to imitate
  6. to deal with; to manage; to care for

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

視：瞻也。从見、示。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 看、觀察。 例：凝視、注視、巡視
  2. 看待、對待。 例：忽視、仇視、視如己出

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

How 視 was written 字形演變

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