客

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

客 (Kangxi radical 40, 宀+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 十竹水口 (JHER), four-corner 3060₄, composition ⿱宀各)

Derived characters

• 額 (额)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 284, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7128
• Dae Jaweon: page 561, character 16
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 927, character 13
• Unihan data for U+5BA2

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 客
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kʰraːɡ) : semantic 宀 (“roof”) + phonetic 各 (OC *klaːɡ) – a guest.

Etymology

Probably belongs to the word family of 格 (OC *klaːɡ, *kraːɡ, “to go, to come”). Schuessler (2007) cites Tibetan དགྲ (dgra, “enemy”) as a possible cognate.

Pronunciation

Definitions

客

1. guest; visitor

   我家來客了。／我家来客了。  ―  Wǒ jiā lái kè le.  ―  A guest has come to visit my home.

   • 花徑不曾緣客掃，蓬門今始為君開。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     花径不曾缘客扫，蓬门今始为君开。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 761, Du Fu, 客至 (A Guest Comes); translated by Stephen Owen

     Huājìng bùcéng yuán kè sǎo, péngmén jīn shǐ wèi jūn kāi.

     My flowered path has never yet been swept on account of a guest,
     my ramshackle gate for the first time today is open because of you.

2. customer; client; consumer (Classifier: 個／个 c; 位 c)

   客滿／客满  ―  kèmǎn  ―  to have a full house

   今日鋪頭有個客好麻煩啊。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   今日铺头有个客好麻烦啊。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   gam¹ jat⁶ pou³ tau^4-2 jau⁵ go³ haak³ hou² maa⁴ faan⁴ aa³.

   There was a really annoying customer at the store today.

3. to treat with guest etiquette; to receive friendly
4. minor; less major; less important
5. Agent suffix, indicating “one that engages in ...”.

   政客  ―  zhèngkè  ―  politician

   刺客  ―  cìkè  ―  assassin

6. one who sponges on a wealthy family; hanger-on; sponger
7. traveller; passenger; one who lives away from home
8. to live away from home; to live abroad
9. (in general) people; person
10. objective; beyond human consciousness

    客觀／客观  ―  kèguān  ―  objective

11. Hakka

    客話／客话 [Sixian Hakka]  ―  Hak-fa [Pha̍k-fa-sṳ]  ―  Hakka language

    純客縣／纯客县  ―  chúnkèxiàn  ―  county whose residents are all Hakka people

12. Classifier for units of food sold.

    • 程凌要了兩客西瓜 [MSC, trad.]
      程凌要了两客西瓜 [MSC, simp.]

      From: 棋王

      Chéng Líng yào le liǎng kè xīguā

      (please add an English translation of this usage example)

13. (literary, obsolete) last; previous

    客歲／客岁  ―  kèsuì  ―  last year

    客冬  ―  kèdōng  ―  last winter

14. a surname

Synonyms

• (Hakka): 客家 (kèjiā)

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• → English: Khek (“Hakka”)
• → Proto-Hmong-Mien: *khæk (“guest”)
  • White Hmong: qhua (“guest”)
• → Lao: ແຂກ (khǣk, “guest”)
• → Thai: แขก (kɛ̀ɛk, “guest”), แคะ (kɛ́, “Hakka”)
• → Vietnamese: Hẹ (“Hakka”)
• → Zhuang: hek (“guest; tourist”), hak (“government official”)

References

• “客”, 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–
• “Entry #4866”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• Go-on: きゃく (kyaku, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: かく (kaku, Jōyō)
• Kun: まろうど (marōdo, 客)^{←まらうど (maraudo, 客, historical)}

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) きゃく (Heiban – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

客(きゃく) • (kyaku) 

1. guest; visitor
2. customer; client
3. patron

Usage notes

This is used as part of a form of address for a customer, like sir or ma'am. Because a customer is in a much higher social position, this word is used with the honorific prefix 御(お) (o-) and the honorific suffix さん (-san) or more often 様(さま) (-sama), rendering お客(きゃく)さん (okyaku-san) or お客(きゃく)様(さま) (okyaku-sama).

References

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese 客 (MC khaek). Recorded as Middle Korean ᄀᆡᆨ〮 (kóyk) (Yale: koyk) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

客

Wikisource

客 (eumhun 손 객 (son gaek))

1. Hanja form^? of 객 (“guest”).

Compounds

References

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

Vietnamese

Han character

客: Hán Nôm readings: khách

1. chữ Hán form of khách (“visitor; guest”).