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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

順

shùn
to follow; to go along with
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 頁
  • 12 strokes

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  • derived
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɢljuns): phonetic 川 (OC *kʰjon) + semantic 頁.

Shuowen considers it to be an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 川 (“river”) + 頁 (“head”) - flowing in the river, i.e. following/obeying the river's current. Compare the English phrase go with the flow.

Compare Tibetan འདུལ ('dul, “to tame; to subdue”) (Hill, 2019).

Possibly related to 循 (OC *sə.lu[n], “to follow”), 馴 (OC *sə.lu[n], “docile”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese川 “river; stream; brook”
  • meaningChinese頁 “sheet (of paper)”
    • componentChinese首 “head”
    • componentChinese卩 “kneeling person”

Related: Tibetan འདུལ

Meanings

character
  1. to follow; to go along with
  2. to obey; to submit to
  3. smooth; successful
  4. to make smooth
  5. to bring (something extra) back while one was at it; to pilfer
  6. harmonious; peaceful; conflict-free

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

順：理也。从頁从巛。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 沿著同一方向、序次。與「逆」相對。 例：順風、順流、順序
  2. 沿、循。 例：順著這條河走。
  3. 趁便。 例：順便、順道、順路
  4. 依序整理。 例：頭髮被吹亂了，得順一順。
  5. 依從、歸服。 例：順從、歸順
  6. 合意、不違逆。 例：順心、順眼

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

How 順 was written 字形演變

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