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

鬥

dòu
to fight; to struggle
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 4
  • radical 鬥
  • 10 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) — two figures face-to-face, fighting with bare hands. Some oracle script characters of 鬥 /斗 (dòu) show that both of their hair are bristled. The character shape resembles 𠨭 and 丮 opposite each other.

鬥 /斗 (dòu) and 鬭 /斗 (dòu) are original characters of this form; forms with the similar-looking radical 門 ("door") were non-standard variants.

Simplified form 斗 was derived via the variant form 鬦.

鬥 /斗 (dòu) is also one of the 324 simplified characters introduced by the Republic of China (Kuomintang government) in 1935 as the simplified form of 鬭 /斗 (dòu); unlike other simplified glyphs, which in many cases get reused for the 1956 PRC simplifications, compared to 鬭, this ended up being used more often as the official traditional form nowadays, despite KMT retraction of such in 1936.

Conflation of two roots "to fight" and "to meet", and the merger has been attested since ancient times.

; "to fight"

; "to meet"

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”
  • partChinese王 “king; monarch”
  • partChinese亅 “a backward hook”

Words built on it: 鬧

Meanings

character
  1. to fight; to struggle
  2. to make animals fight
  3. to contend; to compete with
  4. to strive one's best
  5. (of stars) to collide with each other
  6. chaotic; disorderly, helter-skelter

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

鬥：兩士相對，兵杖在後，象鬥之形。凡鬥之屬皆从鬥。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 爭打。 例：打鬥、鬥毆、械鬥
  2. 競賽、比賽。 例：鬥法、鬥智、爭奇鬥豔
  3. 拼湊、湊集。 例：這種玩具就是要人慢慢依著圖樣去鬥，可以鬥成小汽車、小房子等。

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

How 鬥 was written 字形演變

  1. 鬥 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 鬥 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 鬥 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 鬥