性

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性 U+6027, 性
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6027
← 怦
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 怨 →

Translingual

Stroke order
8 strokes

Han character

性 (Kangxi radical 61, 心+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 心竹手一 (PHQM), four-corner 95010, composition ⿰忄生)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 381, character 24
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10478
  • Dae Jaweon: page 710, character 9
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2286, character 4
  • Unihan data for U+6027

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 性

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (生) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
猜 *sʰlɯː
輤 *sʰleːns
綪 *sʰleːns, *ʔsreːŋ
倩 *sʰleːns, *sʰleŋs
棈 *sʰleːns
蒨 *sʰeːns
篟 *sʰeːns
生 *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs
牲 *sreŋ
笙 *sreŋ
甥 *sreŋ
鉎 *sreŋ, *sleːŋ
珄 *sreŋ
鼪 *sreŋ, *sreŋs
猩 *sreŋ, *seːŋ
狌 *sreŋ
眚 *sreŋʔ
貹 *sreŋs
崝 *zreːŋ
精 *ʔsleŋ, *ʔsleŋs
菁 *ʔsleŋ
鶄 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleːŋ
蜻 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleːŋ
鼱 *ʔsleŋ
婧 *ʔsleŋ, *zleŋs, *zleŋʔ
睛 *ʔsleŋ, *sʰleŋʔ
箐 *ʔsleŋ
聙 *ʔsleŋ
旌 *ʔsleŋ
清 *sʰleŋ
圊 *sʰleŋ
請 *sʰleŋʔ, *zleŋs, *zleŋ
凊 *sʰleŋs
䝼 *zleŋs, *zleŋ
靚 *zleŋs
情 *zleŋ
晴 *zleŋ
夝 *zleŋ
靜 *zleŋʔ
靖 *zleŋʔ
睲 *seŋʔ, *seːŋs
惺 *seŋʔ, *seːŋ
性 *sleŋs
姓 *sleŋs
靗 *l̥ʰeŋs
鯖 *ʔljeŋ, *sʰleːŋ
青 *sʰleːŋ
靘 *sʰleːŋ, *sʰleːŋs
掅 *sʰleːŋs
胜 *sleːŋ
曐 *sleːŋ
星 *sleːŋ
鮏 *sleːŋ
腥 *seːŋ, *seːŋs
鯹 *seːŋ
醒 *seːŋ, *seːŋʔ, *seːŋs
篂 *seːŋ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sleŋs): semantic 忄 (“heart”) + phonetic 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs) – nature, personal quality, hence of the heart.

Etymology

Derived from 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs, “to live; to be born; innate”).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • sáng - vernacular;
  • séng - literary.
Note:
  • sa4/sann4 - vernacular;
  • sing4 - literary.
Note:
  • sèng - literary;
  • sìⁿ/sèⁿ - vernacular (limited, e.g. 性命).
Note: sin3 - limited, used in 慣性.
Rime
Character 性
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 心 (16)
Final (韻) 清 (121)
Tone (調) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 息正切
Baxter sjengH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/siᴇŋH/
Pan
Wuyun 		/siɛŋH/
Shao
Rongfen 		/siæŋH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/siajŋH/
Li
Rong 		/siɛŋH/
Wang
Li 		/sĭɛŋH/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/si̯ɛŋH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		xìng
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		sing3
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 性
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		xìng
Middle
Chinese 		‹ sjengH ›
Old
Chinese 		/*seŋ-s/
English nature

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. * as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 性
Reading # 1/1
No. 11358
Phonetic
component 		生
Rime
group 		耕
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		性
Old
Chinese 		/*sleŋs/

Definitions

性

  1. nature; character; personality
  2. sex; gender
  3. (grammar) gender
  4. sexual intercourse
  5. -ness; -ity (suffix forming nouns and adjectives, denoting qualities)

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (性):
  • → Japanese: 性(せい) (sei); 性(しょう) (shō)
  • → Korean: 성(性) (seong)
  • → Vietnamese: tính (性)

Others:

  • → Tangut: 𗵤 (*sjij¹)

References

Japanese

Kanji

性

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji)

  1. one's nature
  2. characteristic
  3. sex, gender
  4. content

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
性
しょう
Grade: 5
goon

From Middle Chinese 性 (MC sjengH, “nature of something, inherent quality”).

The goon, so the initial borrowing.

Pronunciation

Noun

性(しょう) • (shō) ←しやう (syau)?

  1. the nature of something

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
性
せい
Grade: 5
kan'on

From Middle Chinese 性 (MC sjengH, “nature of something, inherent quality”).

The kan'on, so a later borrowing.

Pronunciation

Noun

性(せい) • (sei) 

  1. sex, gender
  2. (grammar) gender
Synonyms

Suffix

性(せい) • (-sei) 

  1. -ity, -ness, the nature of quality or something
See also

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
性
さが
Grade: 5
kun'yomi
For pronunciation and definitions of 性 – see the following entry.
【相さが】3
nature, personality, characteristic
fate, destiny
a habit, custom, or practice
the good and bad of a person, especially one's faults
(This term, 性, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

Korean

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)

Pronunciation

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

Wikisource

性 (eumhun 성품 성 (seongpum seong))

  1. hanja form? of 성 (“nature; character; sex”)
  2. hanja form? of 성 (“-ness; -ity (suffix forming nouns and adjectives, denoting qualities)”)

Vietnamese

Han character

性: Hán Nôm readings: tính, dính, tánh

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