左

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

左 (Kangxi radical 48, 工+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 大一 (KM), four-corner 4001₁, composition ⿸𠂇工)

Derived characters

• 佐, 咗, 𣳇, 㝾, 袏, 䦈, 堶, 媠, 惰, 㨊, 遀, 隋, 楕, 㻟, 䙃, 䤻, 䭉, 䯝, 鰖, 毻, 隓, 鬌, 𠡃, 𢀡

Descendants

• さ

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 325, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8720
• Dae Jaweon: page 626, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 411, character 5
• Unihan data for U+5DE6

Chinese

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 左 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 左 (Cantonese)
• Chó (sèⁿ) (Southern Min)

Glyph origin

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

Originally written 𠂇 in the oracle bone script: Pictogram (象形) – a left hand. Compare 又 (“right hand”).

Late bronze inscription forms show an added 工 (“work; to assist?”) component, making the current form a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ʔsaːlʔ, *ʔsaːls) and ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : phonetic 𠂇 (, “left hand”) + semantic 工 (“work”), representing the original form of 佐 (OC *ʔsaːls, “to assist”).

Etymology

Cognate with 佐 (OC *ʔsaːls, “to assist”) (< be on one's left side); mirror of the semantic relationship between 右 (OC *ɢʷɯʔ, “right”) and 佑 (OC *ɢʷɯs, “to assist”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Unrelated to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *b(w)aj (“left (hand)”) (STEDT).

“(politics) left-wing”

Semantic loan from English left, in turn a semantic loan from French gauche.

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

左

1. left (direction)

   左手  ―  zuǒshǒu  ―  left hand

2. east; areas to the east

   江左  ―  jiāngzuǒ  ―  area east of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River

3. (historical) inferior position
4. unorthodox; wrong
5. erroneously; mistakingly

   你想左了。  ―  Nǐ xiǎng zuǒ le.  ―  You are mistaken.

6. different; divided; inconsistent

   相左  ―  xiàngzuǒ  ―  to conflict with each other; to fail to agree

7. (politics) left-wing
8. (chemistry) levo-

   左多巴  ―  zuǒduōbā  ―  levodopa

9. (Sichuanese, of singing) out of tune; off-key
10. (Southwestern Mandarin, including Sichuanese) to exchange
11. (Eastern Min) devious, dishonest
12. (Xiang) wrong; incorrect
13. a surname

    左宗棠  ―  Zuǒ Zōngtáng  ―  Zuo Zongtang (Qing dynasty Chinese statesman and military leader)

Usage notes

In socialist nations e.g. mainland China, 左 is usually (not necessarily) put in quotation marks when referring to the leftism further to the correct party line.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• 右 (yòu, “right”)

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

左

1. ^† Original form of 佐 (zuǒ, “to assist”).

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• → Ahom: 𑜏𑜩 (say, “left”)
• → Bouyei: soix (“left”)
• → English: Tso, Zuo
• → Lao: ຊ້າຍ (sāi, “left”)
• → Shan: သၢႆႉ (sâ̰ai, “left”)
• → Thai: ซ้าย (sáai, “left”)
• → Zhuang: swix (“left”)

References

• “左”, 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–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A01151

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: さ (sa, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: さ (sa, Jōyō)
• Kun: ひだり (hidari, 左, Jōyō); と (to, 左)

Alternative forms

• 㔫

Compounds

• 左(さ)遷(せん) (sasen)
• 左(さ)官(かん) (sakan)
• 左(さ)派(は) (saha)
• 左(さ)右(ゆう) (sayū)
• 左(さ)翼(よく) (sayoku)

Etymology 1

/hidari/: * → → .

From Old Japanese. First attested in the Kojiki of 712 CE. From Proto-Japonic *pintari.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ひだり (Heiban – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

左(ひだり) • (hidari) 

1. (direction) left, the side of the left hand
   • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho, page 229:

     Fidari. ヒダリ (左) 左手, または, 左の方

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1999 August 10, “封(ふう)印(いん)されし者(もの)の左(ひだり)腕(うで)”, in 幻の召喚神 [Phantom God], Konami:

     封(ふう)印(いん)された左(ひだり)腕(うで)。封(ふう)印(いん)を解(と)くと、無(む)限(げん)の力(ちから)を得(え)られる。

     Fūinsareta hidariude. Fūin o toku to, mugen no chikara o erareru.

     A sealed left arm. Whosoever breaks the seal shall earn infinite power.

2. (politics) a leftist

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "left"): 右(みぎ) (migi, “right”)

Derived terms

• 左(ひだり)側(がわ) (hidarigawa)
• 左(ひだり)利(き)き (hidarikiki)
• 左(ひだり)手(て) (hidarite)
• 左(ひだり)巻(ま)き (hidarimaki)
• 左(ひだり)上(うえ) (hidariue)
• 左(ひだり)下(した) (hidarishita)
• 右(みぎ)左(ひだり) (migihidari)

Etymology 2

Middle Chinese 左

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) さ​ (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

左(さ) • (sa) 

1. the left in vertical writing
2. the following (one)
   • 1905–06, Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat (text here):

     吾(わが)輩(はい)はまず彼(かれ)がどのくらい無(む)学(がく)であるかを試(ため)してみようと思(おも)って左(さ)の問(もん)答(どう)をして見(み)た。

     Wagahai wa mazu kare ga dono kurai mugaku de aru ka o tameshite miyō to omotte sa no mondō o shite mita.

     To judge just how uneducated he was, I posed the following question.

Prefix

左(さ) • (sa-) 

1. to the left; on the left side
2. (history, government) "of the left", senior or superior to 右 (u-, “of the right”)

   左(さ)衛(え)門(もん)

   Saemon

   the Gate Guard of the Left

   左(さ)大(だい)臣(じん)

   Sadaijin

   the Minister of the Left

References

• Doi, Tadao (1603–1604) Hōyaku Nippo Jisho (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, published 1980, →ISBN.

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese 左 (MC tsaX).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

左

Wikisource

左 (eumhun 왼 좌 (oen jwa))

1. Hanja form^? of 좌 (“left (direction)”).

Derived terms

References

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

Okinawan

Etymology

From Proto-Ryukyuan *pidari, from Proto-Japonic *pintari. Cognate with Japanese 左 (hidari).

Noun

左(ひじゃい) (hijai) 

1. (direction) left

Vietnamese

Han character

左: Hán Nôm readings: tả, tá

1. left (direction)