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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

論

lùn
to discuss; to reason; to debate; to argue
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 言
  • 15 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ruːn, *ruːns, *run): semantic 言 (“say”) + phonetic 侖 (OC *run).

Compare Mizo râwn (“to ask advice, to consult, to ask”) [high-tone], Mizo râwn (“to suggest, to advise, to recommend”) [low-tone].

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
  • soundChinese侖

Related: Mizo râwn

Words built on it: 討論

Meanings

character
  1. to discuss; to reason; to debate; to argue
  2. to assess; to evaluate; to judge; to weigh
  3. to state; to talk about; to recount
  4. to treat; to regard; to handle
  5. to take into consideration; to consider
  6. according to; on the basis of

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

論：議也。从言侖聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 分析、說明。 例：議論、討論、相提並論
  2. 評定、推斷。 例：論罪、以小論大、推論
  3. 依據、按照。 例：論理、論件計酬
  4. 比作、視同、處理。 例：以棄權論、以作廢論、告訴乃論
  5. 顧及、考慮。 例：不論是非、無論如何
  6. 主張、學說。 例：理論、輿論、進化論

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

How 論 was written 字形演變

  1. 論 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 論 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 論 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 論 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: 論