賒

賒 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+7, 14 strokes, cangjie input 月金人一火 (BCOMF), four-corner 6889₁, composition ⿰貝佘)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1208, character 35
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 49736
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3642, character 17
• Unihan data for U+8CD2

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

Originally written as 賖, which is a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hljaː) : semantic 貝 (“shell”) + phonetic 余 (OC *la) – to buy or sell on credit.

In the era of Middle Chinese, a vulgar form 𧶟, also a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) with phonetic component 舍 (MC syaeX|syaeH) that was more similar-sounding to the character, once appeared but never became popularized.

The current form 賒 appeared as a vulgar form at the Ming-Qing transition and is a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) with phonetic component 佘 that is similar-sounding to the character.

According to STEDT, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g/m/s-laj ~ r/s-lej ~ b-rej (“to change, exchange, buy”) (whence also 移 (OC *lal, “change, alter”) & 易 (OC *leɡ, “change, exchange”)); if so, Chinese vocalism might have been influenced by superficially similar words like 舍 (OC *hljaːʔ, “to bestow, to give”) (Schuessler, 2007).

商 (OC *hljaŋ) is its derivative with terminative suffix *-ŋ; 貰 (OC), minimally reconstructed as *lhas ~ *m-las, is another with *-s > *-h extrovert suffix (ibid.).

Thai แลก (lɛ̂ɛk)'s possible relation to 賒 (OC *hljaː) (ibid.) is through its cognate 易 (OC *leːɡs, *leɡ), wherefrom arose Thai แลก (lɛ̂ɛk), Lao ແລກ (lǣk), Shan လႅၵ်ႈ (lēk), Tai Nüa ᥘᥦᥐ (laek), & Ahom 𑜎𑜢𑜀𑜫 (lik) (Pittayaporn, 2014)

Lastly, Bodman (1980)) proposes cognacy to Tibetan གྱར་བ (gyar ba, “to borrow, to lend, to hire”).

賒

1. to buy and sell on credit

   賒賬／赊账  ―  shēzhàng  ―  to buy or sell on credit

2. ^† to forgive
3. ^† distant; far

   • 北海雖賒，扶搖可接。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     北海虽赊，扶摇可接。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 王勃 (Wang Bo), 《滕王閣序》, 675 CE

     Běihǎi suī shē, fúyáo kě jiē.

     Though the Northern Ocean may be very distant, it can still be reached by tornado.

4. ^† (of time) long; long-standing
5. ^† sparse; rare
6. ^† slow

• “賒”, 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), A03960

(Hyōgai kanji)

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

• On (unclassified): しゃ (sha)

賒 (xa)

1. Nôm form of xa (“to search, to look for”).

   𫢋嗺燕九重𫠯賒

   Vủt xoi ẻn cửu túng lồng xa

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003) Hoàng Triều Ân, editor, Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày]‎ (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội

賒: Hán Việt readings: xa
賒: Nôm readings: xa

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