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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

願

yuàn
to desire; to want: to wish
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 頁
  • 19 strokes
  • 𫖸
  • 愿

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ŋʷans): phonetic 原 (OC *ŋʷan) + semantic 頁.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese原 “original; former; primary; prime; virgin”
    • ideaChinese泉 “springwater (Classifier: 口 m; 眼 m)”
      • ideaChinese白 “white”
      • ideaChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
    • ideaChinese厂 “cliff; habitable cave on a cliff”
  • meaningChinese頁 “sheet (of paper)”
    • componentChinese首 “head”
    • componentChinese卩 “kneeling person”

Words built on it: 願意

Meanings

character
  1. to desire; to want: to wish
  2. desire; wish; ambition
  3. vow
  4. to be willing; to be ready; to do willingly
  5. addiction

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

願：大頭也。从頁原聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 心中的希望或期望。 例：心願、許願、如願以償
  2. 希望、期待。 例：願天下有情人終成眷屬。
  3. 甘心、樂意。 例：自願、心甘情願

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

How 願 was written 字形演變

  1. 願 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 願 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: 願