吉

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

吉 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 土口 (GR), four-corner 4060₁, composition ⿱士口)

Derived characters

• 佶, 咭, 𡋥, 姞, 㣟, 恄, 拮, 洁, 狤, 桔, 㸵, 祮, 䂒, 硈, 秸, 袺, 結(结), 聐, 蛣, 夡, 詰(诘), 銡(𰽲), 鞊, 鮚(鲒), 黠
• 㐖, 劼, 㓤, 郆, 欯, 翓, 喆, 頡(颉), 鴶(𱉥), 𪜒, 迼, 趌, 䓀, 髻, 𫜖, 㔛, 臺, 嚞, 䦖, 𡕍, 調, 䭇

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 175, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3289
• Dae Jaweon: page 389, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 576, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5409

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 吉
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-kjit (“happy; pleased”) (STEDT). Also compare Tibetan སྐྱིད་པ (skyid pa, “to be happy”) and Burmese ချစ် (hkyac, “to love, to be pleased”) (Schuessler, 2007, Hill, 2019).

Cantonese sense of “empty” arises from avoidance of 空 (hung¹), which is homophonous to 凶 (hung¹, “inauspicious”).

The Taiwanese Chinese sense of “to sue” arises from avoidance of 告 (gào, “to sue”), which is a typo form of it.

Pronunciation

Definitions

吉

1. auspicious; lucky

   Antonym: 凶 (xiōng)

   吉利  ―  jílì  ―  auspicious; lucky

2. good
3. (Cantonese, euphemistic) empty

   橫掂有間房吉咗喺度，不如租畀人住啊。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   横掂有间房吉咗喺度，不如租畀人住啊。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   waang⁴ dim⁶ jau⁵ gaan¹ fong^4-2 gat¹ zo² hai² dou⁶, bat¹ jyu⁴ zou¹ bei² jan⁴ zyu⁶ aa¹.

   Since there's an empty room, why don't we rent it out?

   交吉卷 [Cantonese]  ―  gaau¹ gat¹ gyun²   ―  Hand out an unanswered (empty) exam paper

4. (Cantonese, euphemistic) emptiness; nothingness

   勞碌一生得個吉 [Cantonese, trad.]
   劳碌一生得个吉 [Cantonese, simp.]

   lou⁴ luk¹ jat¹ sang¹ dak¹ go³ gat¹

   A lifetime of labor amounts to nothing

5. Short for 吉林 (Jílín, “Jilin Province”).
6. a surname
7. (Taiwan, Internet slang) to accuse; to sue; to file a lawsuit; to press charges

   這我一定吉／这我一定吉  ―  zhè wǒ yīdìng jí  ―  I will definitely sue for this

   • 再說認證是假的就吉你 [MSC, trad.]
     再说认证是假的就吉你 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 臺灣臺北地方法院 108 年訴字第 5610 號民事判決

     zàishuō rènzhèng shì jiǎ de jiù jí nǐ

     I will sue you if you said the certification is fake again.

   • 昨天造謠吳宗憲是陳菊人馬的要被吉了 [MSC, trad.]
     昨天造谣吴宗宪是陈菊人马的要被吉了 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 臺灣花蓮地方法院 108 年花秩字第 29 號刑事裁定

     zuótiān zàoyáo Wúzōngxiàn shì Chénjú rénmǎ de yào bèi jí le

     The one who rumoured that Jacky Wu is Chen Chu's staff is now sued.

8. (～縣) Ji County (a county of Linfen, Shanxi, China)

Synonyms

Descendants

• → English: Ji

Compounds

References

• “吉”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: きち (kichi, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: きつ (kitsu, Jōyō)
• Kun: よい (yoi, 吉い); よし (yoshi, 吉し)

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

• 吉(きつ) (kitsu)

Noun

吉(きち) • (kichi) 

1. good luck

Etymology 2

Noun

吉(きつ) • (kitsu) 

1. Alternative form of 吉 (kichi, “good luck”)

Korean

Hanja

吉 (eumhun 길할 길 (gilhal gil))

1. Hanja form^? of 길 (“luck”).

Vietnamese

Han character

吉: Hán Việt readings: cát
吉: Nôm readings: kiết

1. chữ Hán form of cát (“auspicious, lucky”).

References