秦

秦 (Kangxi radical 115, 禾+5, 10 strokes, cangjie input 手大竹木 (QKHD), four-corner 5090₄, composition ⿱𡗗禾)

• 榛, 䆐, 溱

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 851, character 30
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 24995
• Dae Jaweon: page 1275, character 28
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2597, character 5
• Unihan data for U+79E6

Historical forms of the character 秦
Shang		Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States			Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)		Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Shizhoupian script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

In the oracle bone script, an ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 午 (“pestle”, the original form of 杵) + 廾 (“two hands”) + two 禾 (“grain”). A form of its bronze inscription containing only one 禾 developed into the subsequent small seal script form in Shuowen. The 午 and 廾 components have fused into 𡗗 in the modern form. Old Chinese *dzin may derive from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-dz(j)a-k/n/t/s (“to eat; food; to feed; rice”), also recorded as *dzaʔ (Schuessler, 2007).

According to Shuowen Jiezi, the glyph is an ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : abbreviated 舂 (“to pound grain”) + 禾 (“grain”) – husked grain. However this would necessitate a phonological shift that is considered unlikely, and furthermore is likely a folk etymology altogether.

秦

1. (～國) State of Qin (in ancient China)

   • 晉侯、秦伯圍鄭，以其無禮於晉，且貳於楚也。晉軍函陵，秦軍氾南。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     晋侯、秦伯围郑，以其无礼于晋，且贰于楚也。晋军函陵，秦军氾南。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Commentary of Zuo, c. 4^th century BCE

     Jìn hóu, Qín bó wéi Zhèng, yǐ qí wúlǐ yú Jìn, qiě èr yú Chǔ yě. Jìn jūn Hánlíng, Qín jūn Fánnán.

     The Marquis of Jin and the Earl of Qin laid siege to Zheng, under the pretext of the Zheng's disrespectful treatments towards Jin and double-mindedness towards Chu. Jin armies were stationed at Hanling; Qin armies at Fannan.

2. (～朝) Qin dynasty, first imperial dynasty of China
3. Qin, a general area of central-west China in modern-day Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces
4. a surname

   秦良玉  ―  Qín Liángyù  ―  Qin Liangyu (Ming dynasty female general)

• → English: Ch'in, Chin, Qin, Tsin
• →? Sanskrit: चीन (cīna)
  • Niya Prakrit: 𐨕𐨁𐨣 (cina), 𐨕𐨁𐨎𐨣 (ciṃna)
  • → Middle Persian: 𐭰𐭩𐭭 (čīn)
    • Classical Persian: چین (čīn)
      • Dari: چین (čīn)
      • Iranian Persian: چین (čin)
      • Tajik: Чин (Čin)
      • → Arabic: اَلصِّين (aṣ-ṣīn)
        • → Ancient Greek: Θῖνα (Thîna), Θῖναι (Thînai), Σῖναι (Sînai), Τζίνιστα (Tzínista)
        • → Latin: Sinae
          • → Portuguese: China
            • → Italian: Cina
            • → Sardinian: Cina
            • → English: China
  • → Middle Chinese: 支那 (MC tsye na)
    • Chinese: 支那 (Zhīnà)
    • → Japanese: 支那 (しな, shina)
    • → Korean: 지나 (jina)
    • → Vietnamese: Chi Na
  • → Malay: Cina
    • Indonesian: Cina
  • → Malayalam: ചീന (cīna)
  • → Telugu: చీనా (cīnā)
  • → Kannada: ಚೀನಾ (cīnā)

• “秦”, 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–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A02923

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

1. Qin dynasty

• Go-on: じん (jin)
• Kan-on: しん (shin)
• Sō-on: ちん (chin)
• Kun: はた (hata, 秦); はたしん (hatashin, 秦)
• Nanori: かな (kana); たい (tai); はだ (hada); ひろ (hiro); まさ (masa); やす (yasu)

From Middle Chinese 秦 (MC dzin).

秦(しん) • (Shin) 

1. (historical) the Qin dynasty (221-207 BCE), first dynasty of China
2. (historical) name of various states during the Sixteen Kingdoms period:
   1. 前秦 (Zenshin, “Former Qin”, 351-394 CE)
   2. 後秦 (Kōshin, “Later Qin”, 384-417 CE)
   3. 西秦 (Seishin, “Western Qin”, 385-431 CE)
3. a surname

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

秦(はた) • (Hata) 

1. a place name
2. a surname

• 秦(はたの)公(きみ)寺(でら) (Hatanokimi-dera)

Compound of 秦 (Hata, see above) +‎ 秦 (Shin, “Qin (dynasty)”, see above).

The 秦 kanji itself has a kun-reading of はた (hata).

• (Tokyo) はたしん (Heiban – )
• IPA^(key):

秦(はたしん) • (Hatashin) 

1. Synonym of 秦 (Shin, see above)

This reading is used to distinguish from the 漢音 (kan'on) reading of 晋 (Shin, “Jin dynasty”), itself called 晋 (Susumu-shin). The senses are the same for Etymology 1 above.

秦 • (jin) (hangeul 진, revised jin, McCune–Reischauer chin, Yale cin)

1. Qin

秦: Hán Nôm readings: tần, thái

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