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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

證

zhèng
to prove; to testify; to verify
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • radical 言
  • 19 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *tjɯŋs): semantic 言 + phonetic 登 (OC *tɯːŋ).

Cognate with 徵 (OC *tɯŋ, “to summon; to testify”).

Related to Khmer ទៀង (tiəng, “true; exact”), Khmer ផ្ទៀង (phtiəng, “to correct; to verify”), but they may be Chinese loans. Perhaps related to 貞 (OC *teŋ, “to test; to verify”) and 真 (OC *ʔljin, “true”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
  • soundChinese登 “to go up; to climb; to mount; to rise”
    • ideaChinese癶 “to be reverse”
    • ideaChinese豆 “pod-bearing plant or its seeds; bean; pea (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 粒 m)”

Related: Khmer ទៀង, Khmer ផ្ទៀង

Meanings

character
  1. to prove; to testify; to verify
  2. proof; evidence
  3. identification; identity document; credential; papers; ID card
  4. diagnosis of transsexualism, gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria
  5. original form of 症 (zhèng)
  6. a surname, Zheng

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

證：告也。从言登聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 憑據。 例：人證、停車證、借書證
  2. 用憑據、事實來表明或斷定。 例：印證、證實、證道

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

How 證 was written 字形演變

  1. 證 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 證 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 證