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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

長

cháng
long (of distance)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 長
  • 8 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – an old man with long hair; an ancient variant still used is 镸 (e.g., ⾽ and 鬓).

Compare 彡 and the top component of 老 and its variant 考.

Three pronunciations below are cognate, all derived from the original root of 張 (*traŋ, “to make long; to stretch; to string a bow”).

Pronunciation 1 ("long") is the endopassive derivative ("be extended, be stretched"), with intransitive voicing. The lack of Tibeto-Burman cognates with the same meaning indicate that this is a Chinese innovation. Pronunciation 2 ("to grow") is the endoactive derivative. The different pronunciations are one of the few instances of contemporary grammatical tone in Mandarin.

See 張 for more.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Words built on it: 張, 套

Meanings

character
  1. long (of distance)
  2. length
  3. long (in space); far; distant
  4. long (of time); lasting
  5. tall
  6. everlasting; permanent

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

長：久遠也。从兀从匕。兀者，高遠意也。久則變化。亾聲。�者，倒亾也。凡長之屬皆从長。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 事物兩端的距離大的。與「短」相對
  2. 長度。 例：這條繩子長十公尺。　◎
  3. 專精的技能、長處。 例：專長、各有所長、截長補短
  4. 專精於、擅長於。 例：他長於百米短跑。

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

How 長 was written 字形演變

  1. 長 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 長 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 長 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 長 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 長 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 長 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 長