竹

Stroke order

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Radical 118 竹

竹 (Kangxi radical 118, 竹+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹 (H), four-corner 8822₀, composition ⿰亇亇)

1. Kangxi radical #118, ⽵.

• Appendix:Chinese radical/竹
• 𪠿, 𬳕, 𢎉, 𫇸

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 877, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25841
• Dae Jaweon: page 1305, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 2947, character 1
• Unihan data for U+7AF9

Historical forms of the character 竹
Shang		Western Zhou	Warring States			Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Oracle bone script j21672 j21673 j21674 j21675 j21676 j21677 j21678 j21679 j21680 j21681 j21682 j21683 j21684 j21685 j21686 j21687 j21688 Bronze inscriptions b06421 Small seal script s03282 Transcribed ancient scripts File:ACC-L37532.svg L37532 File:ACC-L37533.svg L37533 File:ACC-L25445.svg L25445 File:ACC-L25446.svg L25446 File:ACC-L25447.svg L25447 File:ACC-L25448.svg L25448 File:ACC-L25449.svg L25449
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 竹 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 竹 (Cantonese)
• tek (Southern Min)
• 竹 (Wu)

Pictogram (象形) – two bamboo stalks, with leaves. Earlier forms resembled 个 + 个, current form resembles rather ケ + ケ, or 亇 + 亇.

See also the original version of 散.

Compare Proto-Tai *b.twuːkᴰ (“bamboo strip for tying or weaving”), whence Thai ตอก (dtɔ̀ɔk, “bamboo strip”).

竹

1. (～亞科) bamboo (Classifier: 枝; 棵 m; 根 m; 轆／辘 c)

   竹子  ―  zhúzi  ―  bamboo

2. (music) musical instrument made of bamboo
3. a surname: Zhu

(First grade kyōiku kanji)

1. bamboo

• Go-on: ちく (chiku, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ちく (chiku, Jōyō)
• Tō-on: しつ (shitsu)
• Kun: たけ (take, 竹, Jōyō)
• Nanori: たか (taka)

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *takai.

Theories on derivation include:^[1][2]

• From 長生 (takeou) or 高生 (takahae), in reference to the speed at which bamboo grows.
• Cognate with 高 (taka), 長 (take), 丈 (take) "height".
• From 高景 (takakake) or つらこえ (tsurakoe).
• From ta meaning "tall" (高い (takai)) + ke, ancient form of 木 (ki, “tree”).
• A contraction of 痛快茎延へ (itakukihae), referring to the speed at which bamboo grows.
• Ta is from Korean 대 (dae, “bamboo”) (see also 대나무 (daenamu, “bamboo”, literally “bamboo tree”)), while ke is an ancient form of 木 (ki).

• (Tokyo) たけ (Heiban – )^[2][3][4]
• (Tokyo) たけ (Atamadaka – )^[2] only for the "maidservant" sense
• IPA^(key):

• (Kyoto) たけ  (Kōki – )^[2]

竹(たけ) or 竹(タケ) • (take) 

1. bamboo

   『竹(たけ)取(とり)物(もの)語(がたり)』

   “Taketori Monogatari”

   The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

2. (nyōbō kotoba) a bamboo shoot
3. a wind instrument made using bamboo
4. a 家紋 (kamon, “family crest”) consisting of a bird on a bamboo tree and various bamboo rings
5. (slang) a maidservant (also used in novels of the early modern era)
6. the middle of a 3-tier ranking system

   Hypernym: 松竹梅

   Coordinate terms: 松, 竹, 梅

From Middle Chinese 竹 (MC trjuwk). Recorded as Middle Korean 듁〮 (tyúk) (Yale: tyuk) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

竹

Wikisource

竹 (eumhun 대나무 죽 (daenamu juk))

1. hanja form^? of 죽 (“bamboo”)

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

竹: Hán Nôm readings: trúc

1. (Sino-Vietnamese) bamboo
2. any bamboo species of phyllostachys