貧

貧 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+4, 11 strokes, cangjie input 金尸竹金 (CSHC), four-corner 8080₆, composition ⿱分貝)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1205, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36677
• Dae Jaweon: page 1667, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3628, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8CA7

Historical forms of the character 貧
Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *brɯn) : phonetic 分 (OC *pɯn, *bɯns, “divide”) + semantic 貝 (“money”) – to divide one's money.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d-b(u/i)l (“poor”); cognate with Tibetan དབུལ (dbul, “poor”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007; Hill, 2014).

貧

1. poor; impoverished; destitute

   • 出自北門，憂心殷殷。終窶且貧，莫知我艱。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     出自北门，忧心殷殷。终窭且贫，莫知我艰。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Chū zì běimén, yōuxīn yīnyīn. Zhōng jù qiě pín, mò zhī wǒ jiān.

     I go out at the north gate, with my heart full of sorrow. Straitened am I and poor, and no one takes knowledge of my distress.

   • 貧而無怨，難。富而無驕，易。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     贫而无怨，难。富而无骄，易。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE

     Pín ér wú yuàn, nán. Fù ér wú jiāo, yì.

     To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.

2. to lack; to be deficient in; to be short of

• (poor):

• (to lack):

• (antonym(s) of “poor”): 富 (fù)

The same word as 頻／频 (pín, “frequent”) (Xu, 1990).

貧

1. (colloquial) garrulous; talkative
   • 18th century, Cao Xueqin, chapter 75, in Dream of the Red Chamber:

     [寶玉] 因賈政在座自是踧踖不安，[桂花] 偏又在他手內，因想：說笑話，倘或說不好了，又說沒口才；若說好了，又說正經的不會只管油嘴貧舌，更有不是；不如不說的好。 [Written Vernacular Chinese, trad.]
     [宝玉] 因贾政在座自是踧踖不安，[桂花] 偏又在他手内，因想：说笑话，倘或说不好了，又说没口才；若说好了，又说正经的不会只管油嘴贫舌，更有不是；不如不说的好。 [Written Vernacular Chinese, simp.]

     [Bǎoyù] yīn Jiǎ Zhèng zài zuò zì shì cùjí bù'ān, [guìhuā] piān yòu zài tā shǒu nèi, yīn xiǎng: shuō xiàohuà, tǎnghuò shuō bù hǎo le, yòu shuō méi kǒucái; ruò shuō hǎo le, yòu shuō zhèngjǐng de bù huì zhǐ guǎn yóu zuǐ pín shé, gèng yǒu bùshì; bù rú bù shuō de hǎo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji)

1. poverty

• Go-on: びん (bin, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ひん (hin, Jōyō)
• Kun: まずしい (mazushii, 貧しい, Jōyō)^{←まづしい (madusii, 貧しい, historical)}

貧 (eumhun 가난할 빈 (gananhal bin))

1. hanja form^? of 빈 (“poverty”)

• 빈곤 (貧困, bin'gon, “poverty”)
• 빈민 (貧民, binmin, “poor people”)

貧: Hán Nôm readings: bần