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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

雖

suī
although; even if; despite
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • radical 隹
  • 17 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • sound component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *sqʰʷi): semantic 虫 + phonetic 唯 (OC *ɢʷi, *ɢʷiʔ). Hence, the variant which represents the correct division of component is 𧐌.

Originally meaning "a lizard-like reptile", the character has been phonetically borrowed to represent the sense "although".

Jacques (2019) proposes this to be 維 (OC *ɢʷi, “to be”) with a converbial *s- prefix, literally "while being".

The pronunciation suí is perhaps a euphemism to avoid the homophony with 尿 (suī, “urine”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese虫 “insect”
  • soundChinese唯 “to be”
    • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
    • soundChinese隹 “short-tailed bird”

Words built on it: 雖然

Meanings

character
  1. although; even if; despite

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

雖：似蜥蜴而大。从虫唯聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 縱使、即使。 例：雖然、雖死猶生

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

How 雖 was written 字形演變

  1. 雖 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 雖 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  3. 雖 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 雖 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: 雖