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

鬼

guǐ
ghost; apparition; spirit (Classifier: 隻／只)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 鬼
  • 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) – a kneeling man or figure with an ugly face (甶). The ugly face could be a mask. The lower right “dot” is a small 厶; it is a residual tail that was added later – compare 离. Related to 畏 (variant 𠂽), which originally depicts a ghost standing with a stick in hand.

Compare 異 (“different, strange”), in which the 田 also derives from a face and indicates a mask. Compare also 禺, in which the top component represents either a mask or a monkey's head.

Unknown. May be related to:

* 威 (OC *qul, “to overawe, to terrorise”) with k-nominalisation and endoactive tone B, lit. "the thing which is doing the overawing" (Childs-Johnson, 1995 apud Schuessler, 2007; Baxter & Sagart, 2014), or

* 歸 (OC *klul, “to return”) (Shuowen Jiezi https://ctext.org/shuo-wen-jie-zi/gui-bu?searchu=%E6%AD%B8&searchmode=showall#result; Liezi https://ctext.org/liezi/tian-rui?searchu=%E9%AC%BC%E6%AD%B8%E4%B9%9F&searchmode=showall#result; Carr, 1985 apud Schuessler, 2007), yet Baxter & Sagart (2014) consider this connection, while semantically plausible, to be a folk etymology; as 鬼 (OC *k-ʔujʔ) and 歸 (OC *[k]ʷəj) had different Old Chinese rhymes & thus were likely unrelated.

See also 詭 (OC *krolʔ, “to deceive; peculiar”). Note also similarities to Burmese ကွယ် (kwai, “to hide, obstruct”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese丶 “An ancient punctuation mark.”
  • partChinese田 “farmland (Classifier: 塊／块 m c)”
  • partChinese儿 “standing person”
  • partChinese厶 “private”

Related: Burmese ကွယ်

Words built on it: 塊, 醜

Meanings

character
  1. ghost; apparition; spirit (Classifier: 隻／只)
  2. devil; demon
  3. stealthy; tricky; furtive
  4. sinister plot; dirty trick
  5. devilish; damned; ghastly
  6. clever; smart; quick

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

鬼：人所歸爲鬼。从人，象鬼頭。鬼陰气賊害，从厶。凡鬼之屬皆从鬼。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 人死後的靈魂。 例：鬼魂、鬼怪
  2. 有某種嗜好、行為或癖性不好的人。 例：酒鬼、賭鬼、煙鬼
  3. 胡亂的、隨便的。 例：鬼混、鬼畫符
  4. 狡詐的、陰險的、不光明的。 例：鬼主意、鬼把戲、鬼計多端
  5. 機靈的、靈巧的。 例：鬼靈精
  6. 詭計、狡詐的行為。 例：搞鬼、搗鬼

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

How 鬼 was written 字形演變

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