夙

Translingual

Han character

夙 (Kangxi radical 36, 夕+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹弓一弓戈 (HNMNI), four-corner 7721₀, composition ⿵几歹)

Derived characters

• 㑉 洬 珟 㓘

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 246, character 7
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5755
• Dae Jaweon: page 489, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 861, character 7
• Unihan data for U+5919

Chinese

Glyph origin

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

The oracle bone script consisted of 月 (“moon”) and 丮, and resembled a man holding the moon, probably representing the worship of the moon. Alternatively, it might represent a person working under the moon in the early morning when the moon has not set.

In some forms of its bronze inscription, 月 corrupted into 夕.

丮 later got reduced into 凡.

Etymology

Schuessler (2007) compares this with Proto-Lolo-Burmese *C-sok ~ *V-sok (“morning; morrow”), which STEDT derives from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s(j)u-ŋ/k (“to wake up; morning; clear-headed; to sober up”). Burmese သောကြာ (sau:kra, “Venus”) is unrelated as it ultimately derives from Sanskrit शुक्र (śukra).

Schuessler (2007) also considers this to be related to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-sow (“to arise; to awake; to awaken”), as the morning is the time to arise. Other possible Chinese comparanda of this Tibeto-Burman word are 搜 (OC *sru, “to move”) (as in 搜搜), 速 (OC *sloːɡ, “speedy”), 聳 (OC *sloŋʔ, “to urge on”) (STEDT).

Pronunciation

Definitions

夙

1. early morning
2. early
3. old; past
4. since old days

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• Go-on: すく (suku)
• Kan-on: しゅく (shuku)
• Kun: つとに (tsutoni, 夙に); はやい (hayai, 夙い)

Korean

Hanja

夙 • (suk) (hangeul 숙, revised suk, McCune–Reischauer suk)

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Vietnamese

Han character

夙: Hán Nôm readings: túc

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