您

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

您 (Kangxi radical 61, 心+7, 11 strokes, cangjie input 人火心 (OFP), four-corner 2733₉, composition ⿱你心)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 388, character 34
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10712
• Dae Jaweon: page 721, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2301, character 2
• Unihan data for U+60A8

Chinese

Glyph origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 你 (“you”) + 心 (“heart”). 心 (MC sim) may also phonetically signify the original -m ending (Yuan et al., 1996).

Etymology

This character was not listed in Sui/Tang rhyme books. First attested in Jin/Yuan-era literature, when it was also written as 恁 and probably pronounced as *nim at the time (Lü, 1940; Norman, 1988). The pronoun was used both in the singular and the plural.

The pronoun used in Jin/Yuan-era literature is generally thought to be a fusion of 你們／你们 (nǐmen, “you (plural)”) or 你每 (nǐměi, “you (plural)”) (Lü, 1940; Norman, 1988). Compare 怹 (tān, “he, she (polite)”) ( < 他們／他们 (tāmen, “they”)).

The honorific usage may simply be a development of the plural usage (Norman, 1988); compare English you, French vous. However, others have argued for a different etymology for the honorific pronoun. Wang (1984) and Lü (1985) argue that it is a contraction of 你老 (“you (honorific for seniors)”): /ni lau/ → /nil/ → /nin/. Alternatively, Zhang (2001) suggests that it comes from 仁 (MC nyin), an honorific used in Buddhist texts from the Han dynasty.

In Cantonese and Hakka, this character is simply read as 你; in Teochew, it is read as 汝.

Pronunciation

Definitions

您

1. (polite, honorific, sometimes sarcastic) you (usually singular, may be plural)
2. (archaic or dialectal) you (plural)
3. (archaic) thou; you (singular)

Usage notes

• (honorific you): Some speakers consider 您們／您们 (nínmen) to be ungrammatical and use 您 (nín) in both singular and plural contexts.

Synonyms

Compounds

See also

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. You

Readings

• Go-on: に (ni)
• Kan-on: じ (ji)
• Kun: なんじ (nanji, 您)^{←なんぢ (nandi, 您, historical)}; しかり (shikari, 您り); その (sono, 您の); のみ (nomi, 您)

Vietnamese

Han character

您: Hán Nôm readings: nâm

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