深

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

深 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+8, 11 strokes, cangjie input 水月金木 (EBCD), four-corner 3719₄, composition ⿰氵罙)

Derived characters

• 𠽉, 𪮨, 𩴙, 𪒗, 𡪜, 𢊖, 𦸂, 𬔒

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 632, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17687
• Dae Jaweon: page 1034, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1662, character 10
• Unihan data for U+6DF1

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hljum, *hljums) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 𥥍 ().

Etymology

Unger (1995) that 深 (shēn) had Old Chinese initial *n- because of 淰 (shěn)'s phonetic component 念 (niàn).

Schuessler (2007) reconstructs 深 (OC *nhəm) & proposes relations to Mizo hniam (“to be low, to sink into (land)”), Burmese နိမ့် (nim., “low”), Tangkhul Naga (kʰənim, “to be humble”), Tibetan ནེམས་ (nems, “sink a little, give way”), which Schuessler traces to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *nem (“low”), which STEDT in turn derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-n(i/u)(ː)p/m ~ *r/s-nyap/m (“pinch, squeeze; press, oppress; submerge, sink into, west, low, soft”). If so, 深 (OC *nhəm) is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan.

Schuessler also notices 深 (OC *nhəm)'s similarity to 沉 (OC *d-ləm), which he considers to be an areal etymon.

Possibly cognate with 探 (tàn) and 揇 (nǎn) (however, see there).

深 (OC *nhəms), "depth" (in Rites of Zhou) & whence MC ɕiɪm^H, is nominal derivation with suffix *-s (> departing tone).

淰 (OC *nhəmʔ), "be startled and flee (of fish); i.e. to sink into the deep" (in Liji) & whence Mandarin shěn, is endoactive derivative with *-ʔ (> rising tone).

Pronunciation

Definitions

深

1. (of distance) deep

   Antonym: 淺／浅

2. depth; deepness

   • 凡輻，量其鑿深以為輻廣。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     凡辐，量其凿深以为辐广。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Rites of Zhou, circa 3^rd century BCE

     Fán fú, liàng qí záo shēn yǐwéi fú guǎng.

     For the spokes, the depth of the stud hole in the hub equals the width of the spokes.

3. (of relationships, etc.) deep; profound
4. (of difficulty) great; profound; obtuse; obscure

   呢一題好深。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   呢一题好深。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   ni¹ jat¹ tai⁴ hou² sam¹.

   This question is really hard to solve.

   本書太深喇，我讀極都唔明。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   本书太深喇，我读极都唔明。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   bun² syu¹ taai³ sam¹ laa³, ngo⁵ duk⁶ gik⁶ dou¹ m⁴ ming⁴.

   This book is too hard; I still can't get it after reading it many times.

5. (of time) long
6. (of colors) deep; dark

   Synonym: 濃／浓 (nóng)

   Antonyms: 淺／浅, 淡

7. very; extremely

   Synonym: 非常 (fēicháng)

Compounds

References

• “深”, 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–

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. deep, close, thick, profound

Readings

• Go-on: しん (shin, Jōyō)^{←しん (sin, historical)←しむ (simu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: しん (shin, Jōyō)^{←しん (sin, historical)←しむ (simu, ancient)}
• Kun: ふかい (fukai, 深い, Jōyō); ふかめる (fukameru, 深める, Jōyō); ふかまる (fukamaru, 深まる, Jōyō); ふける (fukeru, 深ける)
• Nanori: み (mi)

Derived terms

• 深(ふか)い (fukai): deep
• 深呼吸(しんこきゅう) (shinkokyū): deep breath

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

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

深

Wikisource

深 (eumhun 깊을 심 (gipeul sim))

1. Hanja form^? of 심 (“deep”).

Compounds

• 심화 (深化, simhwa, “deepening”)
• 심도 (深度, simdo, “depth”)

Vietnamese

Han character

深: Hán Nôm readings: thâm, thăm, thum, thẫm

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