子

Derived characters

 * Appendix:Chinese radical/子

Glyph origin
– an image of a baby, with a large head and spread arms. The legs are wrapped in a blanket. Compare with, where the arms are wrapped.

The big seal script form is much more elaborate, showing a baby with hair on a head and arms on the two sides of the body, sitting on a stool.

Etymology

 * child


 * From.


 * Cognate with, , ,.


 * first earthly branch


 * In oracle bone and Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, 子 was the sixth earthly branch; the first earthly branch was denoted differently. One of the forms survived in .


 * proposed this character is 甾. Observing that 甾 is closely linked with 緇 "dark, stained", 淄 "murky (water)", 菑 "field cleared by burning" (all pronounced *tsrə), Smith (2011) proposes that initially the first earthly branch denoted the new moon phase and meant "darkened, voided, the darkened stage". Additionally, Smith (2011) proposes that, which originated from a Sino-Tibetan root meaning "to come forth", denoted the moon's "coming forth" stage (i.e. early waning-gibbous phase).


 * Sometime in Warring States period, a change occured that 子 became the first earthly branch and filled the void of the sixth earthly branch (Matsumaru, 2015), "due to phonological closeness (combined with the semantic opacity of the Branch terms at later eras)" (Smith, 2011).


 * Association with the rat was possibly arbitrary, analogous to how 辰, the fifth earthly branch, was arbitrarily associated with the dragon.

Definitions

 * 1)  child; offspring
 * 2) son
 * 3)  descendant; posterity
 * 4)  the Son
 * 5)  person
 * 6)  master; teacher
 * 7)  you
 * 8) egg
 * 9) young; tender; small
 * 10)  sub-
 * 11)  First earthly branch:
 * 12)  viscount
 * 13)  -on
 * 14)  grain-like object; particle; granule
 * 15)  rhythm
 * 1)  you
 * 2) egg
 * 3) young; tender; small
 * 4)  sub-
 * 5)  First earthly branch:
 * 6)  viscount
 * 7)  -on
 * 8)  grain-like object; particle; granule
 * 9)  rhythm
 * 1) young; tender; small
 * 2)  sub-
 * 3)  First earthly branch:
 * 4)  viscount
 * 5)  -on
 * 6)  grain-like object; particle; granule
 * 7)  rhythm
 * 1)  grain-like object; particle; granule
 * 2)  rhythm
 * 1)  rhythm

Definitions

 * 1) small, round object

Descendants
Others:

Kanji

 * 1)  child
 * , master
 * 1)  man
 * , viscount
 * 1) egg, fruit, seed
 * 2) small object
 * 3) interest
 * 4) Rat
 * 5) midnight
 * 6) north
 * 1) midnight
 * 2) north


 * Antonyms :

Usage notes
Not to be confused with the visually similar, an obsolete variant form of the katakana  not encoded in Unicode.

Etymology 1
→ * →

From, attested in the ' (712 ) and the ' (c. 759 ), two of the oldest examples of written Japanese.

Cognate with and possibly.

Possibly cognate with 🇨🇬, which appears in an ancient place name with an apparent meaning of.

Noun

 * 1) a child
 * : male child → boy
 * : good boy; good girl
 * 1)  a girl, especially a dear or desired one
 * , text here
 * 1)  creature
 * 2) a smaller or younger version of a bigger object
 * : tree + child/little one →
 * : bamboo + child/little one →
 * 1)  person who is dealt cards
 * 1) a smaller or younger version of a bigger object
 * : tree + child/little one →
 * : bamboo + child/little one →
 * 1)  person who is dealt cards
 * 1)  person who is dealt cards

Prefix

 * 1) an object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another object
 * : derivative + company → a subsidiary
 * : derivative + dog → a puppy

Suffix

 * 1) an object having a particular state or property
 * : an object that swings → a pendulum
 * 1) roe
 * : an object that swings → a pendulum
 * 1) roe

Etymology 2
From, also used in the  (c. 759 ) as  kana for. Compare modern 🇨🇬.

The  reading of shi is likely the original borrowing:

The  reading su appears later, and only shows up in certain set terms borrowed from, where it seems to serve as a kind of nominalizing suffix:

Affix

 * 1) a child
 * : the fourth rank of nobility in -postwar Japan, equivalent to a viscount
 * 1) an honorific for a learned man, such as teacher or master
 * 2) a philosophy branch of Chinese literature, either derived from or outside of the
 * 3) an object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another object
 * 4) an object having a particular state or property
 * : neutral + small thing → a neutron
 * : chair + small thing → a chair

Usage notes

 * This affix is never used in isolation. It is only used in compounds.
 * In some kanji compounds, is part of the word but does not carry much meaning in Japanese, as in . Possibly because of this erosion of meaning, spelling out 子 in some compounds has become optional, as in  vs., or  vs..
 * In some compounds, the shi or su reading becomes voiced as ji or zu due to.

Pronoun

 * 1)  second-person pronoun: you

Proper noun

 * 1)  Rat, the first of the twelve

Etymology 3
Contracted from.

Proper noun

 * 1)  Rat, the first of the twelve :
 * 2) north
 * 3) the hours between 11:00 P.M./midnight and 1:00/2:00 A.M.
 * 4) a day or year assigned to the Rat
 * 5) the eleventh month of the lunar calendar
 * 6) a place name
 * 1) a day or year assigned to the Rat
 * 2) the eleventh month of the lunar calendar
 * 3) a place name

Syllable



 * 1)  variant katakana syllable
 * , 遠西医方名物考, vol. 4, 1822
 * 1) * 第1回国会参法一覧
 * 小杉イ子議員
 * 小杉イ子議員

Etymology
From.