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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

顯

xiǎn
to appear; to manifest; to display
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 3
  • radical 頁
  • 23 strokes

Etymology graph

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 日 (“sun”) + 絲 (“silk”) + 頁 (“person's head”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese日 “Sun”
  • ideaChinese絲 “silk (fibre, cloth, fabrics, etc.)”
    • ideaChinese糸 “thin silk”
  • ideaChinese頁 “sheet (of paper)”
    • componentChinese首 “head”
    • componentChinese卩 “kneeling person”

Meanings

character
  1. to appear; to manifest; to display
  2. apparent; noticeable; obvious
  3. prominent; conspicuous; visible
  4. phanero-
  5. an honorific for deceased immediate family members
  6. to jolt up and down while swaying side to side

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

顯：頭明飾也。从頁㬎聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 表現。 例：顯現、大顯身手
  2. 表露在外的。與「隱」相對。 例：顯性、外顯、顯而易見
  3. 有名望、有地位的。 例：顯貴、顯要、顯赫
  4. 光耀、榮耀。 例：顯揚父母
  5. 尊稱已故的直系親人。 例：顯考、顯妣

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

How 顯 was written 字形演變

  1. 顯 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 顯 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 顯 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 顯 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 顯 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: 顯