天
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Translingual
| Stroke order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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Han character
天 (radical 37, 大+1, 4 strokes, cangjie input 一大 (MK), four-corner 10430, composition ⿱一大)
Descendants
- て (Hiragana character derived from Man'yōgana)
- テ (Katakana character derived from Man'yōgana)
References
- KangXi: page 248, character 4
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5833
- Dae Jaweon: page 500, character 2
- Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 522, character 1
- Unihan data for U+5929
Chinese
| simp. and trad. |
天 | |
|---|---|---|
| variant forms | 𠀘 𠀡 𠀑 | |
The sky over Guangdong.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven.
Glyph origin
| Historical forms of the character 天 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shang | Western Zhou | Warring States | Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) | |
| Bronze inscriptions | Oracle bone script | Bronze inscriptions | Chu Slip and silk script | Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts |
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| Characters in the same phonetic series (天) (Zhengzhang, 2003) | |
|---|---|
| Old Chinese | |
| 添 | *tʰiːm |
| 忝 | *l̥ʰiːmʔ, *l̥ʰiːms |
| 悿 | *tʰiːmʔ |
| 舔 | *l̥ʰiːmʔ |
| 菾 | *diːm |
| 天 | *qʰl'iːn |
| 吞 | *qʰl'iːn, *qʰl'ɯːn |
| 祆 | *qʰliːn |
| 蚕 | *zluːm, *hl'iːnʔ |
A top line representing the level above a man with outstretched arms (大 (dà)). Ancient representations of the character depicted a man with a large head, an anthropomorphic representation of heaven.
Original meaning of the word is “sky”. Such concept is difficult to depict with a pictogram, hence the current form. Perhaps influenced by the glyph, the character was frequently glossed in Old Chinese documents with 顛 (“crown of the head”), and such had led to incorrect hypotheses which regarded 天 (tiān) as a derivation of 顛 or 巔, “top (of the head/hill)”.
Etymology
This character was previously reconstructed to have a /*tʰ/-initial in Old Chinese, but this hypothesis has been largely discounted in recent reconstructions, in light of evidence from early Chinese accounts of dialectal pronunciations, transcription of other languages, as well as cognate/derived characters within Chinese, which has all pointed to a voiceless resonant initial /*l̥-/ in Old Chinese. The book Shiming showed that, by c. 200 CE, this initial had already produced dialectal variation in the pronunciation: People in central-western China pronounced it with the back of the tongue, like 顯 (MC henX), while people in eastern China pronounced it with the tip of the tongue, like 坦 (MC tʰɑnX). An old northwestern dialect variant survives as 祆 (MC hen, “God of the Zoroastrians”), and the word 天竺 (MC tʰen ʈɨuk̚, “India”) was used to transcribe Old Persian *Hind-uka ("India").
Further etymology is unknown. While it was reconstructed with a /*tʰ-/ initial, it was frequently compared with tengri, the name for God in early Turkic and Mongolic peoples' languages. This now appears unlikely. The only certain external cognate is the Central Bai (a language closely related to Chinese) word heinl (“sky, heaven”) /xẽ⁵⁵/.
Pronunciation
Definitions
天
- sky; heavens; heavenly; celestial
- (mythology or religion) heaven as the abode of the gods or the blessed departed; heavenly.
- (mythology or religion) Heaven as an impersonal deity, often translated as God.
- top; overhead
- weather; climate
- day (24 hours)
- † day (as opposed to night)
- † season
- nature
- natural; innate
Synonyms
| Dialectal synonyms of 天 (“day (24 hours)”) [map] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Variety | Location | Words |
| Classical Chinese | 日 | |
| Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 日 | |
| Mandarin | Beijing | 天 |
| Taiwan | 天 | |
| Cantonese | Guangzhou | 日 |
| Hong Kong | 日 | |
| Taishan | 日 | |
| Gan | Nanchang | 日 |
| Hakka | Meixian | 日 |
| Miaoli (N. Sixian) | 日 | |
| Liudui (S. Sixian) | 日 | |
| Hsinchu (Hailu) | 日 | |
| Dongshi (Dabu) | 日 | |
| Hsinchu (Raoping) | 日 | |
| Yunlin (Zhao'an) | 日 | |
| Huizhou | Jixi | 日 |
| Jin | Taiyuan | 天 |
| Min Dong | Fuzhou | 日, 工 |
| Min Nan | Xiamen | 日 |
| Quanzhou | 日 | |
| Zhangzhou | 日 | |
| Taipei | 工, 日 | |
| Kaohsiung | 工, 日 | |
| Tainan | 工, 日 | |
| Taichung | 日, 工 | |
| Hsinchu | 日, 工 | |
| Lukang | 工, 日 | |
| Sanxia | 工, 日 | |
| Yilan | 工, 日 | |
| Kinmen | 工 | |
| Magong | 工 | |
| Penang | 日 | |
| Chaozhou | 日 | |
| Wu | Shanghai | 日, 天 |
| Wenzhou | 日 | |
| Xiang | Changsha | 天 |
Compounds
Derived terms from 天
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Japanese
Readings
Compounds
Compounds
- 韋駄天 (idaten): Skanda (Buddhism); fast-footed person
- 帝釈天 (Taishakuten): Śakra, lord of the Devas and an important figure in Japanese Buddhism
- 天麩羅 (tenpura): tempura
- 任天堂 (Nintendō): Nintendo (gaming company)
- 毘沙門天 (Bishamonten): Vaiśravaṇa, one of the Four Heavenly Kings and an important figure in Japanese Buddhism
Etymology 1
| Kanji in this term |
|---|
| 天 |
| あま Grade: 1 |
| kun’yomi |
From Old Japanese. A bound form only appearing in compounds.[1][2] Compare the formation of 目 (ma, bound form in compounds) and 目 (me, standalone form), 手 (ta, bound form in compounds) and 手 (te, standalone form).
Noun
Derived terms
Derived terms
- 雨 (ame): rain
- 天照 (Amaterasu): “(that which) lights the heavens” → name of the highest standing god in the Shinto pantheon
- 天の川 (ama no gawa), 天の河 (ama no gawa): the Milky Way
- 天下り (amakudari): “descent from heaven” → an avatar of a god visiting earth; a former public official now working in the private sector
Etymology 2
| Kanji in this term |
|---|
| 天 |
| あめ Grade: 1 |
| kun’yomi |
⟨ame2⟩ → */aməj/ → /ame/
From Old Japanese as a sound shift from ama above.[1] Likely derived by fusion of ama + い (i, emphatic nominative particle), similar to the derivation of other words such as 神 (kami, from kamu + i), 目 (me, from ma + i), etc.
Noun
Idioms
Idioms
- 天に跼り地に蹐む (ame ni sekagamari tsuchi ni nukiashinifumu), 天に跼り地に蹐む (ame ni segukumari tsuchi ninukiashinifumu): “in heaven, bow and step carefully on the ground” → to be humble and respectful in heaven
Etymology 3
| Kanji in this term |
|---|
| 天 |
| てん Grade: 1 |
| on’yomi |
From Middle Chinese 天 (MC tʰen, “sky; heavens”). Compare modern Mandarin reading tiān.
Noun
Idioms
Derived terms
Derived terms
- 天神 (tenjin): a god of heaven, heavenly being
- 天空 (tenkū)
- 天皇 (tennō): emperor (of Japan)
- 天下 (tenka), (rarely) 天下 (tenge)
- 天蓋 (tengai)
- 天気 (tenki): weather
- 天狗 (tengu): long-nosed youkai of Japanese mythology
- 天候 (tenkō): weather
- 天国 (tengoku): heaven
- 天才 (tensai): genius, prodigy
- 天災 (tensai)
- 天災地変 (tensai chihen)
- 天使 (tenshi): heavenly messenger, angel
- 天井 (tenjō): roof, ceiling
- 天職 (tenshoku)
- 天真爛漫 (tenshin ranman)
- 楽天 (rakuten): an optimistic outlook, easygoing-ness
- 楽天家 (rakutenka): an optimist
- 楽天主義 (rakuten shugi): optimism
- 楽天主義者 (rakuten shugisha): an optimist
- 天性 (tensei) inherent nature, disposition
- 天体 (tentai)
- 天頂 (tenchō): a zenith
- 天然 (tennen): natural, innate
- 天秤 (tenbin): a balance, a pair of scales
- 天変地異 (tenpen chii): an extraordinary natural phenomenon or occurrence
- 天文 (tenmon)
- 天文学 (tenmongaku)
- 天文台 (tenmondai)
- 雨天 (uten)
- 辯才天 (benzaiten), 辨財天 (benzaiten)
- 天上 (tenjō)
- 天降 (tenkō)
- 天罰 (tenbatsu): divine punishment
- 天地 (tenchi): heaven and earth
- 天神地祇 (tenjin chigi): the gods of heaven and earth
Korean
Vietnamese
Compounds
- 天下 (thiên hạ)
- 天主 (Thiên Chúa)
- 天堂 (thiên đường)
- 天山 (Thiên Sơn)
- 天文學 (thiên văn học)
- 天然 (thiên nhiên)
- 天神 (thiên thần)
References
- Nguyễn (2014).
- Nguyễn et al. (2009).
- Trần (2004).
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