源etymfun
About

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

面

miàn
face (Classifier: 塊／块 c)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 面
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Pictogram (象形), A man’s face, with an eye exaggerated, derived from 𦣻. The horizontal stroke was added later. Unrelated to 自.

Etymology 2: Simplified from 麵 (elimination of 麥) as adopted by the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (《漢字簡化方案》) in 1956.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sV-merl (“face”); cognate with Mizo hmêl (“face”), Jingpho man (“face”). 偭 (OC *menʔ, “to turn; to violate”) is probably cognate (Wang, 1982), perhaps its endoactive (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese麵 “flour”
    • meaningChinese麥 “general term for wheat, barley, oats, ryes, etc.”
      • soundChinese來 “to come; to arrive”
      • meaningChinese夊 “of going, slow”
  • partChinese一 “one”
  • partChinese丶 “An ancient punctuation mark.”
  • partChinese囬
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*sV-merl “face”

Related: Mizo hmêl, Jingpho man

Words built on it: 方面, 面前, 全面, 表面, 一方面, 面包, 上面, 下面, 地面, 前面, 另一方面

Meanings

character
  1. face (Classifier: 塊／块 c)
  2. surface; top; face
  3. aspect; side; respect
  4. right side; cover; outside
  5. face
  6. dignity; reputation; face

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

面：顔前也。从𦣻，象人面形。凡面之屬皆从面。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 臉部。 例：面貌、顏面、臉面
  2. 相貌、外貌。 例：面惡心善、洗心革面
  3. 向著、對著。 例：背山面水、面壁思過、南面稱王
  4. 物體的外表或上部的一層。 例：路面、水面、封面
  5. 當面。 例：面呈、面商、面授機宜
  6. 部位、方位。 例：正面、四面八方

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

How 面 was written 字形演變

  1. 面 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 面 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 面 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 面 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 面 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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 面