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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

誰

shéi
who; whom
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 言
  • 15 strokes

Etymology graph

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

「誰」是一個形聲字，由表示說話的「言」作為語義組成部分，以及表示短尾鳥的「隹」作為音符組成部分。在原始漢語中，其構造成分可能源自 *du 加上獨立代詞的後綴 *-i。此字與「疇」（原始漢語 *du）以及「孰」（原始漢語 *djɯwɢ）同源。在其他悉米-藏語族語言中，可與 Mizo 的 tû（誰；哪個）、Chepang 的 दोह्（什麼）以及 Proto-Kuki-Chin 的 *tuu（誰；哪個（關係詞））進行比較。

在語言演變的過程中，「誰」有幾種可能的縮略來源。它可以是「啥人」（siáⁿ-lâng）或「底人」（tī-lâng）的縮略形式。此外，它也可能是「是誰／是谁」（chī-chūi）或「是誰仔／是谁仔」（chī-chūi-á）縮短而來，亦或是從「是誰／是谁」（chī-choa̍h）縮短而成。另有學者提出，此字可能源自「誰何／谁何」（*chûi-ôa）。該字最早見於青銅器、篆書與楷書。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
  • soundChinese隹 “short-tailed bird”

Related: Mizo tû, Chepang दोह्, Proto-Kuki-Chin *tuu

Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *djul): semantic 言 (“speak”) + phonetic 隹 (OC *tjul).

From *du + *-i (“suffix in independent pronouns”); cognate with 疇 (OC *du, “who”), 孰 (OC *djɯwɢ, “which one; who”) (Schuessler, 2007). In other Sino-Tibetan languages, compare Mizo tû (“who; which”), Chepang दोह् (“what”), Proto-Kuki-Chin *tuu (“who; which (relativizer)”) (Schuessler, 2007; STEDT).

Etymology 2

Contraction of 啥人 (siáⁿ-lâng).

Etymology 3

Contraction of 底人 (tī-lâng).

Etymology 4

Contraction of 是誰／是谁 (chī-chūi).

Etymology 5

From shortening of 是誰／是谁 (chī-choa̍h), from 是誰仔／是谁仔 (chī-chūi-á).

Alternatively, Li (1999) derives this from 誰何／谁何 (*chûi-ôa).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. who; whom
  2. someone; anyone
  3. anyone; whoever
  4. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

誰：何也。从言隹聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 代詞

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

How 誰 was written 字形演變

  1. 誰 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 誰 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 誰 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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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: 誰