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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

角

jiǎo
horn; antler
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 角
  • 7 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – a horn. A conservative version is 𧢲. Similar but unrelated to 甬, 用, and the bottom part of 備.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *krəw (“horn; angle; corner”) (STEDT). Cognate with Tibetan རྭ (rwa, “horn”), Garo grong (“horn”), Jingpho nrung (“horn”), Chepang रोङः (roŋʔ, “horn”), 觡 (OC *kraːɡ, “antler”). The Tibeto-Burman *-ŋ final variant is reflected in 觥 (OC *kʷraːŋ, “drinking vessel made from animal horn”) (Schuessler, 2007). Possibly also related to 鹿 (OC *b·roːɡ, “deer”) (Sagart, 1999).

A derivative is 餃 (“stuffed dumpling”), named for its horn-like shape (Norman, 1988).

It is probably unrelated with Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂nós (“horn”) ( < *ḱerh₂- (“horn”)) and Proto-Semitic *ḳarn- (“horn”) despite the phonological and semantic resemblance between the three.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Related: Tibetan རྭ, Garo grong, Jingpho nrung, Chepang रोङः

Words built on it: 角度, 角色, 解

Meanings

character
  1. horn; antler
  2. point
  3. corner
  4. angle
  5. cape; point; headland
  6. dumpling

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

角：獸角也。象形，角與刀、魚相似。凡角之屬皆从角。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 戲劇或電影中的表演人物。 例：角色、主角、丑角
  2. 二十八星宿之一。為東方蒼龍七宿的第一宿，有兩顆星。
  3. 五音之一。 例：宮商角徵羽

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

How 角 was written 字形演變

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