金

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): semantic 士 (shì) or 王 (wáng), + semantic 呂 (“two blocks of metal”) + phonetic 亼 (今 (OC *kum)). The blocks of metal were originally drawn as : and later as 丷 (bā).

Shuowen interprets it as an image of metal in the earth (Xu Shen writes "象金在土中形") with 亼 as phonetic. But the most ancient versions do not contain the pictogram of the earth.

Originally referred to copper, first used during the Copper Age and the Jade Age in China (hence before the Bronze Age, during which the first bronzes were produced); later the meaning was extended to metal as a whole, and then to gold.

Starostin reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *gǝ̆m (“metal”); compare Tedim Chin xam (“gold”) and Lepcha ᰀᰩᰮ (kóm, “silver, coin, money”).

“Copper” [prior to 5th BCE] → “metals in general” → “gold”.

The main senses now are “gold” and “metal”.

Some of the Manchu people with this surname are descendants of the Qing imperial family and is a calque of Manchu ᠠᡳᠰᡳᠨ (aisin, “gold”) in their original surname ᠠᡳᠰᡳᠨ

ᡤᡳᠣᡵᠣ (aisin gioro).