匠

匠 (Kangxi radical 22, 匚+4, 6 strokes, cangjie input 尸竹一中 (SHML), four-corner 7171₂, composition ⿷匚斤)

• 𰁳, 䞪, 𩣕, 𱑈, 𪀘, 𥱝

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 153, character 22
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2605
• Dae Jaweon: page 345, character 11
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 83, character 5
• Unihan data for U+5320

Historical forms of the character 匠
Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Traditionally thought to be an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) : 匚 (“box”) + 斤 (“axe”) (e.g. Shuowen).

In more recent scholarship (e.g. Zhengzhang, 2003; Baxter and Sagart, 2014), an alternative glyph origin has been proposed, suggesting that it is a phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sbaŋs) : phonetic 匚 (OC *paŋ) + semantic 斤 (“axe”).

Several etymologies have been proposed:

• Related to Tibetan བྱང (byang, “skilled”) (Bodman, 1980) or སྤྱང (spyang, “skilful; clever”) (Sagart and Baxter, 2012). These comparisons would require the Old Chinese reconstruction to have a *sb- initial, which is possible if 匚 (OC *paŋ) is considered to be the phonetic component. The Middle Chinese initial would be derived as such: *s.b- > *zb- > *bz- > *dz- (Baxter and Sagart, 2014).
• Schuessler (2007), who reconstructs the Old Chinese minimally as *dzaŋh, deems it more likely to be from Mon-Khmer, comparing it to Khmer ចាំង (cang, “to dress; to trim (wood)”) (Schuessler, 2007).
• Jacques (2015) proposes another Sino-Tibetan etymology, comparing it to Tibetan མཛངས (mdzangs, “wise; intelligent”), which is derived from བཟང (bzang, “good”). Under this hypothesis, it can be derived from 臧 (OC *ˤaŋ, “good”), which has been connected to the Tibetan word. He postulates the derivation to consist of the nominalizing circumfix *k- -s and the applicative prefix *N-, yielding *k-N-tsaŋ-s > *k-dzaŋ-s.

匠

1. craftsman; artisan; workman
2. master

• → Proto-Southwestern Tai: *ɟaːŋᴮ² (“artisan; skillful”) (via Middle Chinese)
  • Thai: ช่าง (châang)
  • Northern Thai: ᨩ᩵ᩣ᩠ᨦ
  • Khün: ᨩ᩵ᩣ᩠ᨦ
  • Lao: ຊ່າງ (sāng)
  • Lü: ᦋᦱᧂᧈ (tsaang¹)
  • Shan: ၸၢင်ႈ (tsāang)
  • Phake: ꩡင် (caṅ)
  • Ahom: 𑜋𑜂𑜫 (chaṅ)
• → Zhuang: cangh (“someone in a particular profession”) (via Middle Chinese)
• → Khmer: ជាង (ciəng) (via Middle Chinese)

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A00420
• “匠”, 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–

(Jōyō kanji)

• Go-on: ぞう (zō)^{←ざう (zau, historical)}
• Kan-on: しょう (shō, Jōyō)^{←しやう (syau, historical)}
• Kun: たくみ (takumi, 匠)

• 匠(しょう)気(き) (shōki)
• 意(い)匠(しょう) (ishō)
• 師(し)匠(しょう) (shishō)
• 宗匠(そうしょう) (sōshō)

匠(たくみ) • (takumi) 

1. craftsman, artisan
2. craft, craftsmanship, skill

匠(たくみ) • (Takumi) 

1. a male given name

匠(しょう) • (shō) 

1. skilled worker

From Middle Chinese 匠 (MC dzjangH). Recorded as Middle Korean 쟈ᇰ〯 (cyǎng) (Yale: cyang) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

匠

Wikisource

匠 (eumhun 장인 장 (jang'in jang))

1. hanja form^? of 장 (“craftsman, artisan”)

   Synonym: 工 (공 (gong))

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

匠: Hán Nôm readings: tượng

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