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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

速

sù
speedy; quick; fast
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • radical 辵
  • 11 strokes

Etymology graph

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sloːɡ): semantic 辵 + phonetic 束 (OC *hljoɡ).

Compare Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-sow (“to arise; to awake; to awaken”) (STEDT). Related to 促 (OC *sʰoɡ, “to urge”) (Schuessler, 2007).

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束 “to bind; to tie up”

Related: Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-sow

Words built on it: 速度, 快速, 高速, 迅速, 高速公路, 加速

Meanings

character
  1. speedy; quick; fast
  2. speed
  3. to invite
  4. to incur
  5. a surname
  6. km/h

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

速：疾也。从辵束聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 快、急。 例：迅速、速成、速寫
  2. 事物進行時的快慢程度。 例：音速、車速、光速
  3. 邀請、招致。 例：不速之客

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

How 速 was written 字形演變

  1. 速 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 速 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 速 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 速 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 速 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: 速