士

Derived characters

 * Appendix:Chinese radical/士

Glyph origin
– axe-like tool; soldier.

Etymology 1

 * "bachelor, man, male"
 * Reminiscent of Austroasiatic synonyms like 🇨🇬 or MK words for "man, male" like *ʔŋsiil, *ensir, *kəsəy on the Malay Peninsula; noted that foreign *-r sometimes left traces in OC initial complex. These relations, if, valid, would keep 士1 "bachelor, man, male" distinct from 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar".


 * "take or give an office, serve", "servant", "retainer", "officer", "scholar"
 * noted that one could naturally assume the semantic development "male > man > servant > to serve" in order to posit that 士1 "bachelor, man, male" is the same word as 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar". Yet, the exopassive derivation "assignment, affair, thing" and Tibeto-Burman counterparts demonstrated no association with "man, maleness"; & "male" hardly derives from "to serve".
 * Therefore, Schuessler derived these forms from "envoy, jail official, matchmaker" & proposed ultimate  origins. In terms of phonology, MC *dʐ- normally does not occur with *l- and *ʂ in an ST word-family, apparently confirming a non-ST provenance; however, MC *dʐ- here could go back to OC *s-r- (unlike MC *ʂ-, which is from OC *sr)
 * Subsequenly, Schuessler posited either relation to Austroasiatic or OC loan into Tibeto-Burman as 🇨🇬, whence 🇨🇬 & 🇨🇬 . Even so, Tibeto-Burman cognates of this etymon and are difficult to distinguish.

Definitions

 * 1)  unmarried male; bachelor
 * 2)   man
 * 3)  general; high-ranking military officer
 * 4)  soldier; noncommissioned officer
 * 5)   civil servant appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance
 * 6)   I; subject
 * 7)  a social stratum in ancient China
 * 8) scholar; academic; intellectual; intelligentsia
 * 9)   commendable person
 * 10)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  a social stratum in ancient China
 * 2) scholar; academic; intellectual; intelligentsia
 * 3)   commendable person
 * 4)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1) scholar; academic; intellectual; intelligentsia
 * 2)   commendable person
 * 3)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)   commendable person
 * 2)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)
 * 1)  adviser; guard; minister (usually only on the black side, in some sets on both red and black sides)

Usage notes

 * 士 is commonly used to render the sound (not followed by a vowel) in foreign names, e.g., , which is from Cantonese usage.

Compounds

 * : knight
 * : officers and soldiers, soldiers
 * : soldier, warrior
 * : doctor (degree)
 * : a graduate (from a university)
 * : a graduate (from a university)
 * : a graduate (from a university)

Noun

 * 1) samurai, warrior

Suffix

 * 1) person with a certain qualification.

Etymology
From.