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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

近

jìn
near; close
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 辵
  • 8 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡɯnʔ, *ɡɯns): semantic 辶 (“walk”) + phonetic 斤 (OC *kɯn, *kɯns) – to be near something.

Karlgren (1933) relates 近 (OC *ɡɯnʔ, *ɡɯns) to 幾 (OC *kɯl, “imminent”).

近 (OC *ɡɯns, “to come near to; to approach”) is the exoactive/causative derivation of 近 (OC *ɡɯnʔ, “to be near”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Compare Proto-Vietic *t-kəɲ, whence Vietnamese gần (“near”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese辵 “to walk for a while and be still for a while”
    • ideaChinese彳 “to walk slowly”
    • ideaChinese止 “foot”
  • soundChinese斤 “catty or jin, a traditional unit of weight, equal to 0.5 kilograms”

Related: Proto-Vietic *t-kəɲ, Vietnamese gần

Words built on it: 最近, 附近, 接近, 近期, 靠近

Meanings

character
  1. near; close
  2. intimate; close (on affectionate terms)
  3. to approach; to be close to
  4. easy to understand
  5. to make a profit; to earn

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

近：附也。从辵斤聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 時間、空間、血統的距離小。與「遠」相對。 例：近日、近郊、逼近　◎
  2. 淺顯明白，容易瞭解。 例：淺近、言近旨遠
  3. 相似、類似。 例：知恥近乎勇
  4. 血緣關係親密的。 例：近親
  5. 符合、合乎。 例：不近情理、不近人情

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

How 近 was written 字形演變

  1. 近 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 近 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 近 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: 近