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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

鹹

xián
salty; briny
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 鹵
  • 20 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡrɯːm): semantic 鹵 (“salt”) + phonetic 咸 (OC *ɡrɯːm).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hjam (“salty”) or *g-rjum (“salt”); compare Chepang ल्हाम्सा (hlam‑, “salty (not excessively)”), Jingpho jum (“salt”) (STEDT).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*hjam “salty”
  • meaningChinese鹵 “saline soil”
  • soundChinese咸 “all; completely”

Related: Chepang ल्हाम्सा, Jingpho jum

Meanings

character
  1. salty; briny
  2. stingy; miserly
  3. rice topping; viand
  4. dirty; unwashed
  5. erotic; pornographic; obscene
  6. salt

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

鹹：銜也。北方味也。从鹵咸聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 鹽的味道。 例：酸甜苦辣鹹
  2. 含鹽分或鹽味的。 例：鹹魚、鹹菜、鹹水湖

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

How 鹹 was written 字形演變

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