地

地 (radical 32, 土+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 土心木 (GPD), four-corner 4411₂, composition ⿰土也)

• KangXi: page 224, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 4890
• Dae Jaweon: page 456, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 420, character 12
• Unihan data for U+5730

Historical forms of the character 地
Western Zhou	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)		Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Shizhoupian script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *l'els) : semantic 土 (“earth”) + phonetic 也 (OC *laːlʔ).

地

1. earth; ground
   • 這匹馬倒在地上。 / 这匹马倒在地上。  ―  Zhè pǐ mǎ dǎo zài dìshang.  ―  The horse collapsed to the ground.
2. land; field (Classifier: 塊／块 c; 笪 c)
   • 呢塊地 / 呢块地 [Cantonese]  ―  nei¹ faai³ dei⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  this plot of land
3. distance; separation
   • 車站離這三里地。 / 车站离这三里地。  ―  Chēzhàn lí zhè sān lǐ dì.  ―  The bus stop is three miles away.
4. farmland; field
   • 田間地頭 / 田间地头  ―  tiánjiān dìtóu  ―  farmland
   • 下地幹活 / 下地干活  ―  xiàdì gànhuó  ―  to farm
5. (only in compounds) place; location
   • 本地  ―  běndì  ―  local
   • 地處 / 地处  ―  dìchǔ  ―  located in
6. (only in compounds) status; situation
   • 心地  ―  xīndì  ―  mind
   • 見地 / 见地  ―  jiàndì  ―  perspective, opinion
7. (only in compounds) Short for 地球 (dìqiú, “Earth”).
   • 地日距離 / 地日距离  ―  dì rì jùlí  ―  Earth–Sun distance
   • 類地行星 / 类地行星  ―  lèi dì xíngxīng  ―  terrestrial planet

Possibly the same word as 的, the possessive marker (Wang, 1958), but scholars like Lü (1943) and Yuan et al. (1996) are hesitant about this etymology.

Alternatively, Ōta (2003) proposes that it is a grammaticalization of etymology 1. The construction ADJ + 地 would have semantically developed as follows: "a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ manner".

地

(chiefly Mandarin)

1. Particle indicating the word preceding it is used as an adverb.

   很快地  ―  hěn kuài de  ―  very quickly

   佢偷偷地走咗喇。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   Keoi⁵ tau¹ tau¹ dei^6-2 zau² zo² laa³. [Jyutping]

   He secretly left.

   • 你乖乖地坐喺度喇吓。 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

     Nei⁵ gwaai¹ gwaai¹ dei^6-2 co⁵ hai² dou⁶ laa³ haa². [Jyutping]

     Sit here and behave, ok?

   alt. forms: 的, 底 obsolete

• The use of this particle is always optional after polysyllabic adverbs.

  非常短  ―  fēicháng duǎn  ―  very short

  非常地短  ―  fēicháng de duǎn  ―  very short

• On the contrary, monosyllabic adverbs are compulsorily used with or without 地.

  很漂亮  ―  hěn piàoliang  ―  very beautiful

  (where *很地漂亮 is unacceptable)

  倏地不見 / 倏地不见  ―  shū de bùjiàn  ―  to disappear suddenly

  (where *倏不見 is unacceptable in Modern Standard Chinese)

• However, there is an exception:

  猛回頭 / 猛回头  ―  měng huítóu  ―  to turn the head back suddenly

  猛地回頭 / 猛地回头  ―  měng de huítóu  ―  to turn the head back suddenly

地

1. (Cantonese) Placed after a reduplicated adjective or stative verb to lessen its intensity.

   紅紅地 / 红红地 [Cantonese]  ―  hung⁴ hung^4-2 dei^6-2 [Jyutping]  ―  kind of red

   薄薄地 [Cantonese]  ―  bok⁶ bok^6-2 dei^6-2 [Jyutping]  ―  kind of thin

   驚驚地 / 惊惊地 [Cantonese]  ―  geng¹ geng¹ dei^6-2 [Jyutping]  ―  to be kind of scared

   矮矮地 [Cantonese]  ―  ai² ai² dei^6-2 [Jyutping]  ―  kind of short

• This suffix is accompanied by a tone change in the reduplicated word, where the second occurrence is changed to the second tone (unless its original tone is the first or second tone), as seen in the examples above.

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. earth; ground

• Go-on: じ (ji, Jōyō)^{←ぢ (di, historical)}
• Kan-on: ち (chi, Jōyō)
• Kun: つち (tsuchi, 地)
• Nanori: どま (doma)

From Middle Chinese 地 (dij^H). The goon reading, so likely the initial borrowing. Compare modern Mandarin dì.

• On’yomi: Goon
  • (Tokyo) じ​ [jíꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])[1]
  • (Tokyo) じ [jì] (Heiban – [0])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [d͡ʑi]

地 (hiragana じ, rōmaji ji, historical hiragana ぢ)

1. earth, dirt
2. fabric, cloth
   • 1906, Natsume Sōseki, Botchan‎:

     :

     いくらか薄 (うす)い地 (じ)には相違 (そうい)なくっても暑 (あつ)いには極 (きま)ってる。

     Ikura ka usui ji ni wa sōi nakutte mo atsui ni wa kimatteru.

     However thin the cloth, flannel is flannel and must have been pretty warm at that time of the year.

3. (game of Go) territory

From Middle Chinese 地 (dij^H). The kan'on reading, so likely a later borrowing. The devoicing of the initial consonant might indicate a dialectal source. Compare modern Hakka thi, Min Nan tī.

• On’yomi: Kan’on
  • (Tokyo) ち​ [chíꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [t͡ɕi]

地 (hiragana ち, rōmaji chi)

1. earth, land, ground
2. a place, a region, a piece of land
3. territory, dominion
4. (of a crate, etc.) the bottom

地 (hiragana ち, rōmaji -chi)

1. place, area

From Old Japanese.[2][1]

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) つち​ [tsùchíꜜ] (Odaka – [2])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [t͡sɨᵝt͡ɕi]

• 土 (more common for this reading)

地 (hiragana つち, rōmaji tsuchi)

1. earth, dirt, mud, soil
2. the ground
3. the earth (as opposed to the heavens)
4. the ground or bottom of something (as of a price range)

From Middle Chinese 地 (MC diɪ^H). Attested in 훈몽자회／訓蒙字會 as Middle Korean 디〮.

Wikisource

地 (eumhun 땅 지 (ttang ji))

1. Hanja form^? of 지 (“earth; land; ground”).

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

地: Hán Việt readings: địa[1][2][3]
地: Nôm readings: địa[1][2][3][4], đĩa[1][2], gịa[1], đất[2], rịa[3]

1. Hán tự form of địa (“earth; ground; land”).