皇

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order (Japan)

Han character

皇 (Kangxi radical 106, 白+4, 9 strokes, cangjie input 竹日一土 (HAMG), four-corner 2610₄, composition ⿱白王)

Derived characters

• 喤, 堭, 媓, 崲, 徨, 惶, 揘, 湟, 隍, 𣈷, 楻, 煌, 瑝, 遑, 䄓, 䅣, 䊗, 𬗬, 艎, 蝗, 諻(𬤍), 䞹, 鍠(锽), 韹, 䬖, 餭(𫗮), 騜(𫘩), 鰉(鳇), 䑟, 皝, 皩, 䳨(𬸛), 葟, 篁, 凰, 𡈁, 㾮

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 786, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 22701
• Dae Jaweon: page 1201, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2645, character 1
• Unihan data for U+7687

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 皇
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Pictogram (象形) ― a lit oil lamp. The derivative 煌 (OC *ɡʷaːŋ) refers to the original word.

Later developed into a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɡʷaːŋ) : semantic 白 (“flame”) + phonetic 王 (OC *ɢʷaŋ, *ɢʷaŋs).

Etymology

Bodman (1980) proposes a connection with 王 (OC *ɢʷaŋ) "king" (see there for more information).

Pronunciation

Definitions

皇

1. ^⁜ magnificent
2. ^⁜ emperor; sovereign; ruler; superior
3. ^⁜ royal; imperial; august
4. a surname

Compounds

Descendants

References

• “皇”, 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 6 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: おう (ō, Jōyō)^{←わう (wau, historical)}
• Kan-on: こう (kō, Jōyō)^{←くわう (kwau, historical)}
• Kun: きみ (kimi, 皇); すめ (sume, 皇); すべ (sube); すめら (sumera); すべら (subera); すべらぎ (suberagi, 皇); すめらぎ (sumeragi, 皇)

Compounds

• 皇子(みこ) (miko)
• 皇女(みこ) (miko)

Etymology 1

/kʷau/ → /kʷɔː/ → /kɔː/ → /koː/

From Middle Chinese 皇 (MC hwang).

The 漢音 (kan'on, literally “Han sound”) pronunciation, so likely a later borrowing from Middle Chinese.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Affix

皇(こう) • (kō) ^{←くわう (kwau)?}

1. Creator
2. monarch, ruler, sovereign
3. emperor, mikado, tenno
4. Japan, Japanese

Derived terms

Proper noun

皇(こう) • (Kō) ^{←くわう (kwau)?}

1. a unisex given name

Etymology 2

/wau/ → /wɔː/ → /ɔː/ → /oː/

From Middle Chinese 皇 (MC hwang).

The 呉音 (goon, literally “Wu sound”) pronunciation, so likely the initial borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Affix

皇(おう) • (ō) ^{←わう (wau)?}

1. emperor, mikado, tenno

Derived terms

Etymology 3

/sume/ → /sube/

From Old Japanese, as a shift from older sume.

Previously thought to be derived as the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, stem or continuative form) of Old Japanese verb 統ぶ (subu), modern 統べる (suberu, “to control, to govern, to rule”). However, later research into ancient phonetic spellings clarified that the be portion of the verb was realized as ⟨be₂⟩. During the Old Japanese stage, ⟨be₂⟩ could only have derived phonetically from ⟨me₂⟩, and not from the ⟨me₁⟩ syllable of the noun.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Prefix

皇(すべ) • (sube-) 

1. (archaic) prefix of praise and respect, usually towards 神 (kami, “Shinto deities”) or 天皇 (tennō, “Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan”):
   1. divine, godly, heavenly
   2. imperial, royal, august

Derived terms

• 皇神(すべがみ) (subegami)
• 天皇(すべらぎ) (suberagi)

Etymology 4

⟨sume₁⟩ → */sumʲe/ → /sume/

From Old Japanese. Appears to be the older form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Prefix

皇(すめ) • (sume-) 

1. (archaic) prefix of praise and respect, usually towards 神 (kami, “Shinto deities”) or 天皇 (tennō, “Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan”):
   1. divine, godly, heavenly
   2. imperial, royal, august

Derived terms

Etymology 5

From the prefix 皇 (sube-, see above) +‎ 等 (-ra, nominalizing and pluralizing suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Prefix

皇(すべら) • (subera-) 

1. (archaic) prefix of praise and respect, usually towards 神 (kami, “Shinto deities”) or 天皇 (tennō, “Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan”):
   1. divine, godly, heavenly
   2. imperial, royal, august

Derived terms

• 皇(すべら)神(がみ) (suberagami)
• 天皇(すべらぎ) (suberagi)

Etymology 6

From the prefix 皇 (sume-) +‎ 等 (-ra, nominalizing and pluralizing suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Prefix

皇(すめら) • (sumera-) 

1. (archaic) prefix of praise and respect, usually towards 神 (kami, “Shinto deities”) or 天皇 (tennō, “Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan”):
   1. divine, godly, heavenly
   2. imperial, royal, august

Derived terms

Proper noun

皇(すめら) • (Sumera) 

1. a female given name

Etymology 7

/sumeraɡi/ → /suberaɡi/

Shift from sumeragi below, with the nasal /m/ becoming a plosive /b/.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

皇(すべらぎ) • (suberagi) 

1. (archaic) a term of address for an Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan

Derived terms

• 皇(すべらぎ)の花(はな) (suberagi no hana)
• 今(いま)皇(すべらぎ) (ima suberagi)
• 法(のり)の皇(すべらぎ) (nori no suberagi)

Etymology 8

⟨sume₁ro₂ki₁⟩ → */sumʲerəkʲi/ → */sumeraki/ → /sumeraɡi/

Possibly a shift from Old Japanese 天皇 (sume₁ro₂ki₁).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

皇(すめらぎ) • (sumeragi) 

1. (archaic) a term of address for an Emperor or Empress (regnant) of Japan

Proper noun

皇(すめらぎ) • (Sumeragi) 

1. a female given name
2. a surname

Etymology 9

Various nanori readings.

Proper noun

皇(きみ) • (Kimi) 

1. a female given name

皇(きらり) • (Kirari) 

1. a female given name

皇(ただす) • (Tadasu) 

1. a unisex given name

皇(みゆき) • (Miyuki) 

1. a female given name

References

Korean

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 皇 (MC hwang).

Pronunciation

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

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

皇

Wikisource

皇 (eumhun 임금 황 (imgeum hwang))

1. Hanja form^? of 황 (“king; monarch; ruler”).

Compounds

Etymology 2

From Middle Chinese 皇.

Hanja

皇 (eumhun 엄숙할 왕 (eomsukhal wang))

1. (archaic) Hanja form^? of 왕 (“to be solemn”).
   • 1567, 선조소경대왕실록 (宣祖昭敬大王實錄), 즉위년 십월 (卽位年 十月):

     卿之下去, 適在皇皇罔極之中, 未及察之。

     경지하거, 적재왕왕망극지중, 미급찰지. (gyeongjihageo, jeokjaewang'wangmanggeukjijung, migeupchalji.)

     The noble official descended, heads towards solemnness that is boundless in the middle, not able to investigate it.

References

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

Vietnamese

Han character

皇: Hán Việt readings: hoàng (胡(hồ)光(quang)切(thiết)), huỳnh
皇: Nôm readings: hoàng, huỳnh

1. chữ Hán form of hoàng (“emperor”).

Compounds

References