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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

開

kāi
to open; to unlatch; to unfasten
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 門
  • 12 strokes
  • K

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

The character 開 is an ideogrammic compound (會意). It consists of the component 門 (door), 一 (a latch and/or wooden pole that shuts a door), and 廾 (a pair of hands), depicting hands opening a latched door. In the conservative variant 𨵑, the hands and latch are clearly visible, though 一 and 廾 have been combined into 开 since the Small Seal script. The Shuowen Jiezi glosses the character as 張也 (to spread/stretch), noting it follows 門 and 幵.

It is inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-k(w)a-j, meaning mouth, opening, spread, door, face, or jaw. This root is cognate with the Tibetan སྒོ (door) and ཁ (mouth), and the character 戶. The word is possibly a colloquial variant of 闓. Additionally, Proto-Mienic *kʰu̯ɔiᴬ and Thai ไข are considered Chinese loans.

In its attested forms, the character appears in qin, seal, and regular scripts. It is used to mean to open, unlatch, unfasten, start, turn on, switch on, make an opening, open out, or bloom. It is the opposite of 閉 and 關.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m/s-k(w)a-j “mouth; opening; spread; door; face; jaw”
  • ideaChinese門 “gate; door; entrance; opening; portal (Classifier: 扇 m mn; 道 m c; 度 c; 條／条 c; 隻／只 c; 片 mn)”
  • ideaChinese一 “one”
  • ideaChinese廾 “both hands”
  • borrowedEnglishK “The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.”
    • derivedEnglishOK “Endorsement; approval; acceptance; acquiescence.”

Related: Tibetan ཁ, Tibetan སྒོ, Proto-Mienic *kʰu̯ɔiᴬ, Iu Mien kʰɔi¹, Thai ไข

Words built on it: 開始, 離開, 開車

Wiktionary etymology text
Etymology 1

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 門 (“door”) + 一 (“latch and/or wooden pole that shuts a door”) + 廾 (“a pair of hands”) — a pair of hands opening a latched door. 一 and 廾 are combined into 开 since the Small Seal script; however, in the conservative variant 𨵑, the two hands and the latch are well visible.

Compare 闢. See also 關, in which the door is kept shut by two wooden poles.

According to STEDT, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-k(w)a-j (“mouth; opening; spread; door; face; jaw”). Cognate with 戶 (OC *ɡʷaːʔ, “door”), Tibetan ཁ (kha, “mouth”), Tibetan སྒོ (sgo, “door”).

The word is possibly a colloquial variant of 闓 (OC *ŋ̊ʰɯːlʔ, *ŋ̊ʰɯːls) (Schuessler, 2007). Proto-Mienic *kʰu̯ɔiᴬ (“to open”) (whence Iu Mien kʰɔi¹) and Thai ไข (kǎi) are Chinese loans (Ratliff, 2010).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English K (“karat”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. to open; to unlatch; to unfasten
  2. to start; to turn on; to switch on
  3. to make an opening; to open up
  4. to open out; to bloom
  5. to thaw
  6. to split; to divide; to cut

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

開：張也。从門从幵。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 張啟。與「閉」、「關」相對。 例：開門、開口、開箱　◎
  2. 舒張、綻放。 例：開顏、開懷、盛開
  3. 發動、啟動。 例：開車、開船、開飛機
  4. 發掘、拓展。 例：開礦、開荒、開疆闢土
  5. 創辦、設立。 例：開店、開國
  6. 起始做某種行為、動作。 例：開學、開工、開飯

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

How 開 was written 字形演變

  1. 開 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 開 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 開 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

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 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: 開