災

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See also: 灾 and 烖
災 U+707D, 災
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-707D
← 灼
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 灾 →
災 U+2F918, 災
CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F918
← 灊
 		CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 灷 →

Translingual

Han character

Stroke order
7 strokes

災 (Kangxi radical 86, 火+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 女女火 (VVF), four-corner 22809, composition ⿱巛火)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 666, character 18
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 18879
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1075, character 23
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2190, character 6
  • Unihan data for U+707D

Chinese

trad. 災/灾/烖/菑*
simp. 灾
alternative forms
𤆎
𡿧
甾
𤉣
𤈮
𤆎
𡿧
甾
𤉣
𤈮
𥘔
𢎇
𨓌
𭴠
 

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (災) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
灾 *ʔsɯː
災 *ʔslɯː

Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) : 巛 (“flowing water”) + 火 (“fire”) – two main types of disaster, fire (conflagration) and flowing water (flooding).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tsa-t ~ dza-t (“hot, fever, hurt, ill, temper”); cognate with Burmese ဆာ (hca, “hungry, thirsty”), Tibetan ཚ (tsha, “hot, intense”), and 菑 (OC *ʔsrɯ, *ʔsɯː, *ʔsɯː, “field cleared by slash and burn”) (STEDT), which is its r-causative (Schuessler, 2007).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • che/cher - vernacular;
  • chai - literary.
  • Dialectal data
Variety Location 災
Mandarin Beijing /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Harbin /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Tianjin /t͡sai²¹/
Jinan /t͡sɛ²¹³/
Qingdao /t͡sɛ²¹³/
Zhengzhou /t͡sai²⁴/
Xi'an /t͡sai²¹/
Xining /t͡sɛ⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /t͡sɛ⁴⁴/
Lanzhou /t͡sɛ³¹/
Ürümqi /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Wuhan /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Chengdu /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Guiyang /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Kunming /t͡sæ⁴⁴/
Nanjing /t͡sae³¹/
Hefei /t͡se̞²¹/
Jin Taiyuan /t͡sai¹¹/
Pingyao /t͡sæ¹³/
Hohhot /t͡sɛ³¹/
Wu Shanghai /t͡se⁵³/
Suzhou /t͡se̞⁵⁵/
Hangzhou /t͡se̞³³/
Wenzhou /t͡se³³/
Hui Shexian /t͡sɛ³¹/
Tunxi /t͡sə¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /t͡sai³³/
Xiangtan /t͡sai³³/
Gan Nanchang /t͡sai⁴²/
Hakka Meixian /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Taoyuan /t͡sɑi²⁴/
Cantonese Guangzhou /t͡sɔi⁵³/
Nanning /t͡sɔi⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /t͡sɔi⁵⁵/
Min Xiamen (Hokkien) /t͡sai⁵⁵/
/t͡se⁵⁵/
Fuzhou (Eastern Min) /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Jian'ou (Northern Min) /t͡suɛ⁵⁴/
Shantou (Teochew) /t͡sai³³/
Haikou (Hainanese) /t͡sai²³/
Rime
Character 災
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 精 (13)
Final (韻) 咍 (41)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 祖才切
Baxter tsoj
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/t͡sʌi/
Pan
Wuyun 		/t͡səi/
Shao
Rongfen 		/t͡sɒi/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/t͡səj/
Li
Rong 		/t͡sᴀi/
Wang
Li 		/t͡sɒi/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/t͡sɑ̆i/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		zāi
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		zoi1
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 災
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		zāi
Middle
Chinese 		‹ tsoj ›
Old
Chinese 		/*ˁə/
English calamity

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 災
Reading # 1/1
No. 16487
Phonetic
component 		災
Rime
group 		之
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		烖
Old
Chinese 		/*ʔslɯː/
Notes 烖籀文

Definitions

災

  1. (literary, or in compounds) calamity; disaster; catastrophe
  2. (literary, or in compounds) personal misfortune
  3. (literary, or in compounds) stricken; disaster-affected; disaster-afflicted

Synonyms

  • (calamity):

Compounds

References

Japanese

Kanji

災

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
災
さい
Grade: 5
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 災 (MC tsoj, “calamity”).

Pronunciation

Noun

災(さい) • (sai) 

  1. an act of God, a disaster, a calamity
Usage notes
  • Seldom used on its own. Most often used in compounds.
Derived terms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
災
わざわい
Grade: 5
kun'yomi
Alternative spellings
災い
禍
殃

/wazapapi/ → /wazaɸaɸi/ → /wazawahi/ → /wazawai/

From Old Japanese. Originally a compound of 業(わざ) (waza, “deed, doings”), in reference to the doings of the 神(かみ) (kami, “gods, spirits”) + 這(は)い (hai, “spreading widely”, literally “crawling”).[1] Compare the etymology of 幸(さきわい) (sakiwai, “good fortune”). Compare also the connotations of the English term act of God in reference to disasters.

Often spelled 災(わざわ)い (wazawai) with the trailing okurigana い (i) to make the reading more explicit.

Pronunciation

Noun

災(わざわい) • (wazawai) ←わざはひ (wazafafi)?

  1. an act of God, a disaster, a calamity
Idioms
Idioms

References

  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Korean

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)

Pronunciation

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

Wikisource

災 (eumhun 재앙 재 (jaeang jae))

  1. hanja form? of 재 (“disaster”)

Compounds

Vietnamese

Han character

災: Hán Nôm readings: tai

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