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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

齊

/t͡ɕʰi³⁵/
even; uniform; of equal length
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 齊
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形): multiple neatly arranged fruits or thorns. The oracle bone script of 櫅／𪲎 (jī) depicts these growing on a tree.

Possibly related to 薺／荠 (jì) (蒺藜 (jílí), a plant with thorny fruits) and 櫅／𪲎 (jī) (white jujube).

Either related to Mizo čelʔᴸ (“equal, to endure”) or, more phonologically likely, Tibetan ཚིར (tshir, “queue, order, succession”) as Tibetan /tsʰir/'s final /-r/ can explain the Middle Chinese retroflex initial of 儕 (OC *zriːl), which is derived from 齊 (OC *zliːl). Note also similarities to Burmese စီ (ci, “to line up”), စေ့ (ce., “to keep things close together”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese亠 “couvercle (Kangxi radical)”
  • partChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”
  • partChinese丫 “bifurcation; fork”
  • partChinese□
  • partChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”
  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”
  • partChinese二 “two”

Related: Mizo čelʔᴸ, Tibetan ཚིར, Burmese စီ

Words built on it: 擠, 濟

Meanings

character
  1. even; uniform; of equal length
  2. same; identical
  3. complete
  4. together; simultaneously
  5. to be the same height as; to be level with
  6. along a line

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

齊：禾麥吐穗上平也。象形。凡亝之屬皆从亝。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 供祭祀用的黍、稷等穀物。

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

How 齊 was written 字形演變

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