海

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海 U+6D77, 海
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6D77
← 浶
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 浸 →

海 U+FA45, 海
CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-FA45
← 梅
 		CJK Compatibility Ideographs 渚 →
海 U+2F901, 海
CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F901
← 派
 		CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 流 →

Translingual

Japanese 海
Simplified 海
Traditional 海
Stroke order
10 strokes

Alternative forms

In Chinese, the bottom right component is 母 with 2 dots, yielding 海. In Japanese shinjitai, this component is simplified to 毋 (1 cross stroke), yielding 海 (氵+毎). Both forms are encoded under the same Unicode codepoint – see Han unification.

Han character

海 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+7 in Chinese and Korean, 水+6 in Japanese, 10 strokes in Chinese and Korean, 9 strokes in Japanese, cangjie input 水人田卜 (EOWY) or 水人田十 (EOWJ), four-corner 38157, composition ⿰氵每(GHTKV or U+FA45) or ⿰氵毎(J or U+2F901))

Derived characters

Further reading

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 625, character 14
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17450
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1023, character 11
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1627, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+6D77

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 海
Wikipedia has articles on:

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 海
Western Zhou Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
Characters in the same phonetic series (母) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
脢 *mɯːs, *mɯː, *mɯːs
挴 *mlɯːʔ, *mɯːʔ
海 *hmlɯːʔ
毐 *ʔmɯː, *ʔmɯːʔ
呣 *mɯ
拇 *mɯʔ
母 *mɯʔ
胟 *mɯʔ
姆 *mɯʔ, *mɯs, *maːʔ
畮 *mɯʔ
踇 *mɯʔ
苺 *mɯs, *mɯːʔ, *mɯːs
莓 *mɯs, *mɯː, *mɯːs
敏 *mrɯʔ, *mrɯŋʔ
鰵 *mrɯŋʔ
慜 *mrɯŋʔ
毋 *ma
梅 *mɯː
酶 *mɯː
鋂 *mɯː
每 *mɯːʔ
毎 *mɯːs
痗 *mɯːs, *hmɯːs
晦 *hmɯːs
誨 *hmɯːs
悔 *hmɯːʔ, *hmɯːs
霉 *mrɯl

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hmlɯːʔ) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 每 (OC *mɯːʔ).

Etymology

Probably related to 晦 (OC *hmɯːs, “dark”); in numerous Zhou texts 海 is described as 晦 (Schuessler, 2007). Compare the parallelism in Chinese: 溟 (OC *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ, “ocean”) < 冥 (OC *meːŋ, “dark”).

STEDT compares 海 (OC *hmlɯːʔ) to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *muːŋ ~ r/s-muːk (“foggy; dark; sullen; menacing; thunder”).

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data
Variety Location 海
Mandarin Beijing /xai²¹⁴/
Harbin /xai²¹³/
Tianjin /xai¹³/
Jinan /xɛ⁵⁵/
Qingdao /xɛ⁵⁵/
Zhengzhou /xai⁵³/
Xi'an /xai⁵³/
Xining /xɛ⁵³/
Yinchuan /xɛ⁵³/
Lanzhou /xɛ⁴⁴²/
Ürümqi /xai⁵¹/
Wuhan /xai⁴²/
Chengdu /xai⁵³/
Guiyang /xai⁴²/
Kunming /xæ⁵³/
Nanjing /xae²¹²/
Hefei /xe̞²⁴/
Jin Taiyuan /xai⁵³/
Pingyao /xæ⁵³/
Hohhot /xɛ⁵³/
Wu Shanghai /he³⁵/
Suzhou /he̞⁵¹/
Hangzhou /he̞⁵³/
Wenzhou /he³⁵/
Hui Shexian /xɛ³⁵/
Tunxi /xuə³¹/
Xiang Changsha /xai⁴¹/
Xiangtan /xai⁴²/
Gan Nanchang /hai²¹³/
Hakka Meixian /hoi³¹/
Taoyuan /hoi³¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /hɔi³⁵/
Nanning /hɔi³⁵/
Hong Kong /hɔi³⁵/
Min Xiamen (Hokkien) /hai⁵³/
Fuzhou (Eastern Min) /hai³²/
Jian'ou (Northern Min) /xuɛ²¹/
Shantou (Teochew) /hai⁵³/
Haikou (Hainanese) /hai²¹³/
Rime
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 曉 (32)
Final (韻) 咍 (41)
Tone (調) Rising (X)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 呼改切
Baxter xojX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/hʌiX/
Pan
Wuyun 		/həiX/
Shao
Rongfen 		/xɒiX/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/həjX/
Li
Rong 		/xᴀiX/
Wang
Li 		/xɒiX/
Bernard
Karlgren 		/xɑ̆iX/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		hǎi
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		hoi2
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		hǎi
Middle
Chinese 		‹ xojX ›
Old
Chinese 		/*m̥ˁəʔ/ (dialect *m̥ˁ- > x-)
English sea

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. * as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
No. 9283
Phonetic
component 		母
Rime
group 		之
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		海
Old
Chinese 		/*hmlɯːʔ/

Definitions

海

  1. sea; ocean
    好想去看海。  ―  Hǎo xiǎng qù kàn hǎi.  ―  I really want to go and look at the sea.
  2. big lake
    洱海  ―  Ěrhǎi  ―  Er Lake
    北京的北海  ―  Běijīng de Běihǎi  ―  Beihai Lake, Beijing
  3. (Cantonese) wide river, especially the Pearl River
  4. (of containers, amount, etc.) big; large
    海碗  ―  hǎiwǎn  ―  extra large bowl
    海量  ―  hǎiliàng  ―  huge amount
    海投  ―  hǎi tóu  ―  to send résumés to many companies; to use shotgun approach in job hunting
    海扁  ―  hǎi biǎn  ―  (slang) to beat someone tremendously
    海咪咪  ―  hǎi mīmī  ―  (slang) big boobs
  5. overseas; abroad
    海棗／海枣  ―  hǎizǎo  ―  date palm
  6. (figurative) sea; abundance; infiniteness
    人海  ―  rénhǎi  ―  huge crowd
    火海  ―  huǒhǎi  ―  sea of flames
  7. (dialectal, colloquial) profuse; numerous
  8. (dialectal, colloquial) unrestrainedly; randomly; casually
  9. a surname. Hai (mainland China, Taiwan), Hoi (Hong Kong)
    海瑞  ―  Hǎi Ruì  ―  Hai Rui (Chinese scholar-official of the Ming dynasty)

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 海 (“sea”)
Variety Location Words
Classical Chinese 海
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) 海
Northeastern Mandarin Beijing 海
Taiwan 海
Malaysia 海
Singapore 海
Jilu Mandarin Jinan 海
Central Plains Mandarin Xi'an 海
Southwestern Mandarin Chengdu 海
Wuhan 海
Jianghuai Mandarin Yangzhou 海
Hefei 海
Cantonese Guangzhou 海
Hong Kong 海
Yangjiang 海
Gan Nanchang 海
Hakka Meixian 海
Miaoli (N. Sixian) 海
Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian) 海
Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu) 海
Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu) 海
Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping) 海
Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an) 海
Jin Taiyuan 海
Northern Min Jian'ou 海
Eastern Min Fuzhou 海
Southern Min Xiamen 海
Chaozhou 海
Wu Shanghai 海
Suzhou 海
Wenzhou 海
Xiang Changsha 海
Shuangfeng 海

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (海):
  • → Japanese: 海(かい) (kai)
  • → Korean: 해(海) (hae)
  • → Vietnamese: hải (海)

Others:

References

Japanese

Shinjitai 海
Kyūjitai
[1]
海
&#xFA45;
or
海+&#xFE00;?
海󠄀
海+&#xE0100;?
(Adobe-Japan1)
海󠄃
海+&#xE0103;?
(Hanyo-Denshi)
(Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment.
See here for details.

Kanji

海

(Second grade kyōiku kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 海)

  1. sea, ocean
  2. vastly gathered
  3. large, wide

Readings

Compounds

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
海
うみ
Grade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)
Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ja
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

⟨umi1⟩ → */umij/ → /umi/

From Old Japanese, theorized as descending from Proto-Japonic *omi.

Has been thought to have been derived from a compound. There are two leading theories regarding the ultimate derivation:

This is problematic phonetically because there is no known term having a related shift from /opo/ → /oː/ → /o/ → /u/, and semantically as there already exists a compound 大水 (ōmizu, “flood”).
  • From う (u-, stem indicating “ocean”) + 水 (mi, “water”, combining form). The u- stem is evident in 魚 (uo, “fish”) and 潮 (ushio, “salt water; tide”), and in the 海 (una) element in various ancient terms (see below).[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

海(うみ) • (umi) 

  1. a sea, an ocean
    Antonym: 陸 (oka, riku)
    海(うみ)の中(なか)にはいろんな生(い)き物(もの)が暮(く)らしています。
    Umi no naka ni wa ironna ikimono ga kurashiteimasu.
    There are all sorts of creatures living in the sea.
    海(うみ)に行(い)こうよ！
    Umi ni ikō yo!
    Let's go to the beach!
  2. a lake
    Synonym: 湖 (mizuumi)
  3. (figurative) an object covering over a large area, as in 血の海 (chi no umi, “pool of blood”) or 火の海 (hi no umi, “sea of fire”)
  4. (planetology) a mare (dark surface of a celestial body, thought to appear like a sea)
  5. (calligraphy) in a 硯 (suzuri, “inkstone”), a reservoir where water is stored
    Synonym: 池 (ike)
Usage notes
  • This is the most common general term in modern Japanese for sea or ocean.
Derived terms
Derived terms
Idioms

Proper noun

海(うみ) • (Umi) 

  1. a female given name

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
海
うな
Grade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Old Japanese. Thought to be comprised of う (u-, stem indicating “ocean”) + な (na, ancient alternative form of the possessive particle の (no)).[6] The u- stem is also evident in 魚 (uo, “fish”) and 潮 (ushio, “salt water; tide”).

First cited to the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE.[6]

Pronunciation

Prefix

海(うな) • (una-) 

  1. of the sea, of the ocean
Derived terms
Derived terms

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
海
わた
Grade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Old Japanese.

Probably related to Korean 바다 (bada, “ocean, sea”); perhaps an ancient Koreanic borrowing into Japanese.

Also read as wada.[7]

Pronunciation

Noun

海(わた) • (wata) 

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean
Derived terms
Derived terms

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
海
み
Grade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

Either cognate with 水 (mi, “water”), or an abbreviation of umi above.

Pronunciation

Noun

海(み) • (mi) 

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean
Derived terms

Etymology 5

Kanji in this term
海
かい
Grade: 2
on'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC xojX).

Pronunciation

Affix

海(かい) • (kai) 

  1. sea; ocean

References

  1. ^ “海”, in 漢字ぺディア‎ (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2024
  2. ^ “海”, in 日本大百科全書：ニッポニカ (Nippon Dai Hyakka Zensho: Nipponica, “Encyclopedia Nipponica”)‎ (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 1984
  3. ^ “海／うみ”, in 語源由来辞典 (Gogen Yurai Jiten, “Etymology Derivation Dictionary”) (in Japanese), 2003–2024.
  4. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  5. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 “わた 【海】Paid subscription required”, in 日本国語大辞典‎ (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2000-2002, released online 2007, →ISBN, concise edition entry available here

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC xojX).

Historical Readings
Dongguk Jeongun Reading
Dongguk Jeongun, 1448 ᄒᆡᆼ〯 (Yale: hǒy)
Middle Korean
Text Eumhun
Gloss (hun) Reading
Hunmong Jahoe, 1527 바다〮 (Yale: pàtá) ᄒᆡ〯 (Yale: hǒy)

Pronunciation

  • (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): ~
  • Phonetic hangul:
    • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

Wikisource

海 (eumhun 바다 해 (bada hae))

  1. hanja form? of 해 (“sea; ocean”)

Compounds

Compounds

References

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

Vietnamese

Han character

海: Hán Việt readings: hải (呼(hô)改(cải)切(thiết))[1][2][3][4][5]
海: Nôm readings: hẩy[1][2][3][6], hải[1][2][7][4], hái[1], hơi[1], hãi[2], hỏi[2]

  1. Chữ Hán form of hải (“sea; ocean”).
  2. Nôm form of hẩy (“to toss; to throw”).

Compounds

Compounds

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nguyễn (2014).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Nguyễn et al. (2009).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Trần (2004).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bonet (1899).
  5. ^ Génibrel (1898).
  6. ^ Hồ (1976).
  7. ^ Taberd & Pigneau de Béhaine (1838).
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