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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

訓

xùn
to teach; to instruct; to lecture
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 7
  • radical 言
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Perhaps from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-kul (“to instruct, explain, admonish”). Compare Tibetan སྐུལ་བ (skul ba, “to exhort”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese訁 “Left radical form of Kangxi radical #149 言 (yán, to speak).”
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*s-kul “to instruct, explain, admonish”
  • partChinese川 “river; stream; brook”

Related: Tibetan སྐུལ་བ

Meanings

character
  1. to teach; to instruct; to lecture
  2. to explain
  3. to explain the meaning or sense of a word
  4. to reprimand; to slam; to rebuke; to denounce
  5. to scold
  6. to train; to drill

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

訓：說教也。从言川聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 告誡。 例：教訓、訓誡
  2. 教練。 例：訓練、集訓
  3. 解釋文字的意義。 例：訓詁

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

How 訓 was written 字形演變

  1. 訓 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 訓 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 訓 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 訓 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
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 訓