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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

讀

dú
to say aloud; to tell
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 言
  • 22 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Etymology 1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l'oːɡ): semantic 言 (“to say”) + phonetic 𧶠 (OC *luɡ).

“To say aloud, to tell” (Shijing) > “to recite” > “to read”.

Cognate with Tibetan ཀློག (klog, “to read; to recite”). Starostin sets up Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-lok (“to recite; to give notice”) for this, and also includes Burmese လျှောက် (hlyauk, “to tell; to ask; to petition; word-for-word translation; indiscriminately”) and Mizo thlûk (“accent, tone, intonation”). Related to 讟 (OC *l'oːɡ, “resentment, slander < to grumble; complaint”).

STEDT provisionally sets up Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-g-(l/r)əwk (“to read”), relating it to 牘 (OC *l'oːɡ, “tablet”).

Sagart (1999) argues that “read” cannot be the primary meaning, since existence of the concept “to read” before the invention of writing is questionable. There was likely no writing at the time of the split between Chinese and other Sino-Tibetan languages, therefore the Tibetan word may represent a borrowing from Chinese.

Etymology 2

A late attested reading. Starostin thinks it is from the *-s pronunciation of Etymology 1.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*k-lok “to recite; to give notice”
    • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*s-g-(l/r)əwk “to read”
  • meaningChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
  • soundChinese𧶠 “to hawk; to peddle in the street”
    • soundChinese睦 “harmonious”
      • meaningChinese目 “eye (Classifier: 雙／双 mn-t)”
      • soundChinese坴 “of a clod of earth, big”
        • soundChinese圥
        • meaningChinese土 “earth; soil”
    • meaningChinese貝 “shellfish; cowrie”

Related: Tibetan ཀློག, Burmese လျှောက်, Mizo thlûk

Meanings

character
  1. to say aloud; to tell
  2. to read (silently); to peruse
  3. to read aloud; to read out
  4. to study
  5. to pronounce (a character, a word, etc.)
  6. pronunciation

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

讀：誦書也。从言賣聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 照著文字唸出聲音。 例：誦讀、朗讀、宣讀
  2. 看書。 例：閱讀、值得一讀
  3. 學習、研究。 例：他之所以讀醫科，完全是基於自己的志趣。
  4. 字的唸法。 例：文讀、白讀

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

How 讀 was written 字形演變

  1. 讀 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 讀 in Clerical script
    Clerical
    隸書
    Han
  3. 讀 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: 讀