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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

解

jiě
to loosen; to unfasten; to untie
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 角
  • 13 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 角 (“horn”) + 刀 (“knife”) + 牛 (“cow”) – a knife separates a horn from a cow, i.e. “cut up (an ox)”.

Three pronunciations are cognate. "To loosen; to disengage" > "idle, lazy, remiss". Cognate with 懈 (OC *kreːs, “lazy, remiss”) and possibly 邂逅 (OC *ɡreːs ɡoːs, “carefree and happy”).

? Area stem: *C-re. Compare Burmese ဖြေ (hpre, “to untie; to answer; to ease; to absolve”), အဖြေ (a.hpre, “answer, solution; response; explication”); Khmer រាយ (riəy, “to scatter, to be divided up, to separate”), ស្រាយ (sraay, “to untie, to undo, to explain, to solve”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese角 “horn; antler”
  • ideaChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”
  • ideaChinese牛 “bovine, e.g. cow, bull, ox, buffalo, bison, yak (Classifier: 頭／头 m c mb md; 條／条 m g h x; 隻／只 m c g …”

Related: Burmese ဖြေ, Khmer រាយ

Words built on it: 了解, 理解, 解放, 解除

Meanings

character
  1. to loosen; to unfasten; to untie
  2. to divide; to break up; to split; to separate
  3. to excrete; to go to the toilet
  4. to remove; to eliminate
  5. to dissolve; to become scattered, less substantial, or less visible
  6. to resolve

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

解：判也。从刀判牛角。一曰解𢊁，獸也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 怠惰。通「懈」。
  2. →解縣
  3. 姓。

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

How 解 was written 字形演變

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