昆

昆 (Kangxi radical 72, 日+4, 8 strokes, cangjie input 日心心 (APP), four-corner 6071₁, composition ⿱日比)

• 婫, 堒, 惃, 棍, 混, 焜, 掍, 錕, 尡, 䛰, 鯤

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 490, character 39
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13792
• Dae Jaweon: page 852, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1489, character 9
• Unihan data for U+6606

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

Pictogram (象形) – the body and legs of an insect.

“elder brother”

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(g/k)əw-n (“elder brother; senior male relative”); cognate with 舅 (OC *ɡuʔ, “maternal uncle”) (Benedict, 1972; STEDT).

Alternatively, it may be related to Middle Mon ကော (kao, “elder brother”), with nominal suffix -n added (Schuessler, 2007).

“descendants; later”

Perhaps from Proto-Mon-Khmer *kuun (“child”); cognate with Min 囝 (“son; child”) (Schuessler, 2007) and with ancient Chu dialect 觀 (OC *koːn, “child; offspring”) (Ye, 2014); cf. also some rear meanings of the characters 丱 (OC *kroːns, “young child”), 鯤 (OC *kuːn, “roe; fish egg”) and 鰥 (OC *kruːn, “roe”) (ibid.). In modern Wu dialects the character 官 (OC *koːn) is used to mean "children" (ibid.).

“many; numerous”

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-kul (“twenty; all”); cognate with 群 (OC *ɡlun, “herd; all”) (Schuessler, 2007; STEDT).

“quetta-”

Phono-semantic matching of English quetta-. Coined by the China National Committee for Terminology in Science and Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation on World Metrology Day in 2023 (20 May 2023).

昆 is pronounced with aspirated initial /kʰ/ instead of the expected /k/ in the majority of modern varieties of Chinese. The /k/ sound in 昆 (MC kwon) was changed to /kʰ/ during its historical development to avoid homophony with 褌 (MC kwon, “underclothing”), a word that was historically in vernacular use (Hirayama, 2005).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

昆

1. (obsolete) together
2. (literary) elder brother

   • 終遠兄弟，謂他人昆。謂他人昆，亦莫我聞。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     终远兄弟，谓他人昆。谓他人昆，亦莫我闻。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

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

     Zhōng yuàn xiōngdì, wèi tārén kūn. Wèi tārén kūn, yì mò wǒ wén.

     For ever separated from my brothers,
     I call a stranger elder-brother.
     I call a stranger elder-brother,
     But he will not listen to me.

3. (literary) descendants
4. (obsolete) later
5. (obsolete) many; numerous

   昆蟲／昆虫  ―  kūnchóng  ―  insect

6. (obsolete) Alternative form of 焜 (kūn)
7. Short for 昆明 (Kūnmíng).

   成昆鐵路／成昆铁路  ―  Chéng Kūn Tiělù  ―  Chengdu–Kunming railway

8. a surname
9. (Mainland China) quetta- (SI unit prefix)

   Synonym: 奎 (kuí) (Taiwan)

昆

1. Only used in 昆侖／昆仑 (húnlún), alternative form of 渾淪／浑沦

昆

1. ^† Alternative form of 混 (“to unite”)
2. 54th tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "unity" (𝌻)

昆

1. (Cantonese) to deceive; to fool

• 李學勤，2012《字源》，天津：天津古籍出版社，2013年7月2次印刷
• “昆”, 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)

1. A swarm of or an organism that swarms (e.g. bugs), an organism that forms in large groups (e.g. kombu)
2. elder brother
3. descendants, great-great-great-great grandchild

• Go-on: こん (kon, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: こん (kon, Jōyō)
• Kun: あに (ani, 昆)、なかま (nakama)、むれ (mure)
• Nanori: ひ (hi)、ひで (hide)、やす (yasu)

From Middle Chinese 昆 (MC kwon). Recorded as Middle Korean 곤 (kwon) (Yale: kwon) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

昆

Wikisource

昆 (eumhun 맏형 곤 (macheong gon))

1. hanja form^? of 곤 (“swarm”)
2. hanja form^? of 곤 (“the eldest brother”)

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

昆: Hán Việt readings: côn
昆: Hán Nôm readings: con, gon

昆 • (con)

1. Nôm form of con (“child”).