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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

鐵

tiě
iron (Fe)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 金
  • 21 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *l̥ʰiːɡ): semantic 金 (“metal”) + phonetic 𢧤 (zhì). The original version, according to the Shuowen Jiezi, is 𨮯, with 大 on top, hence the original phonetic component should be not 𢧜.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hljak (“iron”). Cognate with Tibetan ལྕགས (lcags). According to the Shuowen, alternative forms included 銕 (OC *l'iːl, *l̥ʰiːd). Compare 驖 (OC *l̥ʰiːɡ, *l'iːɡ, “black horse”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese金 “copper (Cu)”
  • soundChinese𢧤 “big”

Related: Tibetan ལྕགས

Meanings

character
  1. iron (Fe)
  2. arms; weapon (Classifier: 條／条 c; 嚿 c)
  3. strong; solid; firm
  4. ironclad; firm; unalterable
  5. ruthless
  6. nothing; damn all; jack shit; bugger all (Classifier: 條／条 c)

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 化學元素。符號為Fe。呈銀白色，富延展性，容易導電傳熱。加熱後能與許多化學元素反應，冶煉成各種材料，是應用最廣的金屬。多存在於火成岩中。人體若長期缺乏鐵質會引起貧血。
  2. 兵器。 例：手無寸鐵
  3. 堅固的、堅硬的。 例：鐵拳、銅牆鐵壁、金城鐵郭
  4. 堅定不變的。 例：鐵證如山、鐵石心腸
  5. 必定。 例：這扇窗戶鐵是小偷破壞的。

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

How 鐵 was written 字形演變

  1. 鐵 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 鐵 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 鐵 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 鐵