好
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
|
好 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 女弓木 (VND), four-corner 47447, composition ⿰女子)
Historical forms of the character 好 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Shang | Western Zhou | Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) |
Oracle bone script | Bronze inscriptions | Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts |
Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) : 女 (“woman”) + 子 (“child”).
The widely accepted meaning of this character is that the characters for “female” (女) and “child” (子) were put together to form a compound because it was good for a woman to have a child. Similarly, it has been proposed that the compound originally refers to the mutual affection between the mother and child, which then extended to mean “good”. These theories are supported by the smaller 子 found in some oracle bones and bronze inscriptions. See also 保 and the original version of 乳.
However, broader interpretations of the second character 子 could lead to other theories. 子 could also mean “son”, so it may have meant two children, a boy and a girl next to each other, which is a good fortune to have a boy and a girl. 子 could also mean “man”, so it may have referred to the love between a man and a woman, which is good. Duan Yucai, in his annotated version of Shuowen, interpreted it as originally referring to the beauty of woman. Lastly, it could mean that the “attitude” of a girl was considered good.
The two pronunciations are cognate – pronunciation 2 is the *-s suffixed form, or exoactive/putative of pronunciation 1, literally “to consider good”. Compare 惡 (OC *qaːɡ, “bad; evil”) > 惡 (OC *qaːɡs, “to consider bad; to hate”).
This word has been compared with Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hu (“to raise; to rear; to nourish”): Proto-Lolo-Burmese *hu³, Abor-Miri (Tani) u, Mawo Northern Qiang χu, which is only attested in a limited number of languages. If this is correct, it may be related to 畜 (OC *l̥ʰuɡs, *l̥ʰuɡ, *hluɡ, “to raise; to rear; domesticated animal”). Alternatively, compare Tibetan མཁོ (mkho, “necessary, important”).
Cognate with Central Bai hux (“good”), which may be a loanword from Chinese.
好
Variety | Location | Words |
---|---|---|
Classical Chinese | 何等, 何其, 一何, 何哉, 何等也, 何則 | |
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 多麼, 何等, 何其 | |
Northeastern Mandarin | Beijing | 多麼, 多 |
Taiwan | 多麼, 多 | |
Malaysia | 多 | |
Singapore | 多麼, 多 | |
Jilu Mandarin | Jinan | 多麼, 多 |
Central Plains Mandarin | Xi'an | 多 |
Southwestern Mandarin | Chengdu | 好, 多 |
Wuhan | 幾, 幾樣, 好 | |
Guilin | 好 | |
Jianghuai Mandarin | Yangzhou | 多 |
Hefei | 好 | |
Cantonese | Guangzhou | 幾, 幾咁 |
Hong Kong | 幾, 幾咁 | |
Yangjiang | 幾 | |
Gan | Nanchang | 幾 |
Hakka | Meixian | 幾 |
Jin | Taiyuan | 多麼, 多來 |
Northern Min | Jian'ou | 幾多 |
Eastern Min | Fuzhou | 若夥, 若 |
Southern Min | Xiamen | 偌, 偌爾仔, 活, 活欲 |
Quanzhou | 偌, 活, 活欲 | |
Zhangzhou | 偌, 偌爾仔, 偌仔爾, 活, 活欲 | |
Taipei | 偌爾, 偌仔爾 | |
Kaohsiung | 偌爾, 偌仔爾 | |
Penang (Hokkien) | 偌 | |
Singapore (Hokkien) | 偌 | |
Manila (Hokkien) | 偌 | |
Chaozhou | 若 | |
Singapore (Teochew) | 若 | |
Zhongshan Min | Zhongshan (Longdu, Shaxi) | 幾 |
Wu | Shanghai | 多少, 幾化 |
Suzhou | 幾化 | |
Wenzhou | 幾倈, 幾恁 | |
Xiang | Changsha | 幾, 幾多, 好 |
Shuangfeng | 幾, 好 |
Variety | Location | Words |
---|---|---|
Classical Chinese | 能 | |
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 能, 能夠, 可以 | |
Northeastern Mandarin | Taiwan | 能, 能夠, 可以 |
Malaysia | 能 | |
Singapore | 能, 能夠, 可以 | |
Cantonese | Hong Kong | 可以 |
Hakka | Kuching (Hepo) | 得 |
Eastern Min | Singapore (Fuqing) | 會 |
Southern Min | Penang (Hokkien) | 會, 會使 |
Singapore (Hokkien) | 會, 會使 | |
Manila (Hokkien) | 會, 會通 | |
Zhongshan Min | Zhongshan (Longdu, Shaxi) | 得, 可以 |
Wu | Shanghai | 好 |
Suzhou | 好 | |
Ningbo | 好 |
Others:
好
好 • (ho) (hangeul 호, revised ho, McCune–Reischauer ho)
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.