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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

透

tòu
to penetrate; to pass through
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 辵
  • 11 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l̥ʰoːs, *hljuɡ): semantic 辵 (“walking”) + phonetic 秀 (OC *slus).

This character is not attested in the oracle bone script or bronze inscriptions.

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秀 “to shoot out into ears; earing; ear”
    • ideaChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
    • ideaChinese引 “to pull; to draw (a bow)”
      • ideaChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
      • ideaChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”
    • componentChinese乃 “you, your”

Words built on it: 透明

Meanings

character
  1. to penetrate; to pass through
  2. to show; to reveal
  3. to disclose
  4. thoroughly; completely
  5. clear and thorough
  6. transparent

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

透：跳也。過也。从辵秀聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 穿過。 例：滲透、穿透
  2. 澈底而充分。 例：熟透、摸透、看透
  3. 超過、過分。 例：透支
  4. 顯露。 例：白裡透紅

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

How 透 was written 字形演變

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