崖

崖 (Kangxi radical 46, 山+8, 11 strokes, cangjie input 山一土土 (UMGG), four-corner 2221₄, composition ⿱山厓 or ⿸屵圭)

• 𬿕, 嘊, 𭏡, 漄, 𨖭, 𥊅, 𰧛, 𰏍, 𰳘, 𮯒

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 314, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8180
• Dae Jaweon: page 614, character 25
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 778, character 8
• Unihan data for U+5D16

Historical forms of the character 崖
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *ŋreː, *ŋre): semantic 山 (“mountain”) + phonetic 厓 (OC *ŋreː, “cliff”).

Alternatively analyzed as Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *ŋreː, *ŋre): semantic 屵 (“cliff”) + phonetic 圭 (OC *kʷeː). In this case, its proto-form could be 屵.

Originally, the phonetic component is not related to the concept of earth (土) since in its original form it represents a pair of ritual axes perhaps made of jade 士. Hence, the link to the concept of earth in this character, 厓 and 街 either comes from folk etymology or its appearance in the Small Seal script.

Same word as 睚 (OC *ŋreːs, “rim of the eye”) and 涯 (OC *ŋreː, *ŋre, “shore, bank”) (Schuessler, 2007). See the latter for etymology.

崖

1. cliff; precipice (Classifier: 個／个 m)

   • 她說，那邊有個崖，你覺得滑嗎？
     她说，那边有个崖，你觉得滑吗？

     From: 2018, 雙雪濤, 《飛行家》, Taipei: 大塊文化, →ISBN, page 91

     Tā shuō, nàbiān yǒu ge yá, nǐ juéde huá ma?

     She said, "There's a cliff over there. Do you think it's slippery?"

2. (literary) limit; boundary; margin

• (limit):

(Jōyō kanji)

• Go-on: げ (ge, 崖)
• Kan-on: がい (gai, 崖)
• Kun: がけ (gake, 崖, Jōyō)、まま (mama, 崖)、ほき (hoki, 崖)
• Nanori: きし (kishi, 崖)

From Middle Chinese 崖 (MC ngje|ngea, “cliff, precipice”). Not attested in isolation. First attested in compound 崖岸 (gaigan, “cliff shore, cliff bank”) in 900.

• IPA^(key):

崖(がい) • (gai) 

1. cliff

Shift from older pronunciation kake. First attested in 1280.

May be a shift in usage from compounding element kake as in the synonymous terms 懸路 (kakeji), 懸道 (kakemichi, “cliff road, steep mountain road”), where the kake comes from verb 懸ける (kakeru, “to set into; to set across”), from the way the road would be set into the cliff or mountain.

The change from kake to gake apparently happened some time during the Edo period (1603–1868). This term is recorded as Caqe (then-current Portuguese orthography for modern romanization kake) in the 1603 Nippo Jisho Japanese-Portuguese dictionary.

• (Tokyo) がけ (Heiban – )
• IPA^(key):

崖(がけ) • (gake) 

1. steep bank, cliff

   Synonym: 切岸 (kirigishi, literally “cut bank”)

From Old Japanese. Further derivation unclear.

First attested in the Man'yōshū of 759.

Modern references either omit this reading entirely or provide no pitch accent information for this reading, suggesting that it might be archaic or even obsolete in modern usage.

• IPA^(key):

崖(まま) • (mama) 

1. (archaic, possibly obsolete) steep slope or incline; collapsed part of a levee or embankment

Derivation unclear. First attested in the late 1100s.

Modern references either omit this reading entirely or provide no pitch accent information for this reading, suggesting that it might be archaic or even obsolete in modern usage.

• IPA^(key):

崖(ほき) • (hoki) 

1. (archaic, possibly obsolete) a steep area on a mountainside, a cliff

Probably from 岸 (kishi, “shore, bank (of a body of water)”).

• IPA^(key):

崖(きし) • (Kishi) 

1. a surname

From Middle Chinese 崖 (MC ngea). Recorded as Middle Korean 애 (ay) (Yale: ay) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

崖

Wikisource

崖 (eumhun 벼랑 애 (byeorang ae))

1. hanja form^? of 애 (“cliff; precipice; precipitous”)

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

崖: Hán Nôm readings: nhai, day

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