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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

跨

/kʰu̯ä⁵¹/
to step across; to stride
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 足
  • 13 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kʰʷraː, *kʰʷraːʔ, *kʰʷraːs, *kʰʷaːs): semantic 足 + phonetic 夸 (OC *kʰʷraː).

Probably from a Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kwar (“to stride, straddle”); compare Burmese ခွ (hkwa., “fork in a road”), Mizo kaarʔ (“to step, pace, stride”), Tibetan གར་ (gar, “dance”). See also 褲 (OC *kʰʷaːs, “pants, trousers”), which is derived from 跨 (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*kwar “hole, orifice; innards”
  • meaningChinese足 “foot”
  • soundChinese夸 “extravagant; luxurious; handsome”
    • meaningChinese大 “of great size; big; large; huge”
    • soundChinese于 “to go to”

Related: Burmese ခွ, Mizo kaarʔ, Tibetan གར་

Meanings

character
  1. to step across; to stride
  2. to cross over (a wall, river, etc.)
  3. to overstep; to exceed; to surpass
  4. to straddle; to bestride; to ride
  5. to occupy; to hold
  6. transgender; trans

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

跨：渡也。从足夸聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 抬起一隻腳向前或向左、向右移動。 例：請隊伍向右橫跨一步。　◎
  2. 兩腿分開的騎或立。 例：跨馬、跨立
  3. 橋形物橫架在上。 例：關渡橋橫跨在淡水河上。
  4. 越過已存範疇的界限。 例：跨組、跨行、跨年度

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

How 跨 was written 字形演變

  1. 跨 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 跨 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: 跨