游

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 游. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 游, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 游 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 游 you have here. The definition of the word 游 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of游, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: 遊 and 逰
游 U+6E38, 游
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6E38
← 渷
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 渹 →

Translingual

Stroke order
12 strokes

Han character

游 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 水卜尸木 (EYSD), four-corner 38147, composition ⿰氵斿)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 635, character 14
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17792
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1042, character 10
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1684, character 8
  • Unihan data for U+6E38

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 游
2nd round simp. 沋

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (斿) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
游 *lu
遊 *lu
蝣 *lu
斿 *lu

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *lu) : semantic 水 (“water”) + phonetic 斿 (OC *lu). However, the phonetic component has a reference to travelling, hence it adds part of the meaning.

Etymology 1

From Sino-Tibetan. Cognate with Tibetan རྒྱུ་བ (rgyu ba, “to walk; to wander”), Lepcha ᰚᰪᰌᰦ (yŭ-da, “to flow”), Rawang yø (“to flow”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Same word as 遊 (OC *lu, “to roam; to travel”). Cognate with 流 (OC *ru, “to flow”), 泅 (OC *lju). Probably unrelated to 油 (OC *lɯw, “abundant”), 滺 (“flowing”).

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 游
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 以 (36)
Final (韻) 尤 (136)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 以周切
Baxter yuw
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/jɨu/
Pan
Wuyun 		/jiu/
Shao
Rongfen 		/iəu/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/juw/
Li
Rong 		/iu/
Wang
Li 		/jĭəu/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/i̯ə̯u/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		yóu
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		jau4
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 游 游
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		yóu yóu
Middle
Chinese 		‹ yuw › ‹ yuw ›
Old
Chinese 		/*ru/ /*ru/
English float, swim float, swim

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 游
Reading # 1/1
No. 15545
Phonetic
component 		斿
Rime
group 		幽
Rime
subdivision 		1
Corresponding
MC rime 		猷
Old
Chinese 		/*lu/

Definitions

游

  1. to swim
    他游得最遠。／他游得最远。  ―  Tā yóu dé zuì yuǎn.  ―  He swam the furthest.
    他們一起游向那艘船。 [MSC, trad.]
    他们一起游向那艘船。 [MSC, simp.]
    Tāmen yīqǐ yóu xiàng nà sōu chuán.
    Together they swam to the ship.
  2. reach; part of a river
    上游  ―  shàngyóu  ―  upper reach, upstream
    下游  ―  xiàyóu  ―  lower reach, downstream
  3. a surname

Compounds

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 游 – see 遊 (“to travel; to tour; to wander; to roam; etc.”).
(This character is the simplified form of 遊).
Notes:

References

  • “游”, 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–
  • 莆田市荔城区档案馆 , editor (2022), “游”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 289.

Japanese

Kanji

游

(Hyōgai kanji)

  1. to float
  2. to swim

Readings

  • On (unclassified): ゆう (yū)、りゅう (ryū)
  • Kun: およぐ (oyogu)、あそぶ (asobu)、あそび (asobi)
  • equivalent: 遊

Korean

Hanja

游 • (yu) (hangeul 유)

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Vietnamese

Han character

游: Hán Nôm readings: du

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