頭

Glyph origin
.

Etymology
Replaced earlier due to homophony with.

Several etymologies have been proposed:
 * From or its allofam ; compare, , ,  (STEDT; ).
 * of.
 * From, whence ; this is phonologically plausible since final consonants are often lost after a long vowel in loanwords.
 * A variant of, as skulls could have been used as drinking recipients; compare from  and  from  . However,  notes that  seems like a tone C  derivation from , which may have originally meant “skull”.
 * reconstructs the Old Chinese with a *m- prefix for human body parts, deriving it from.

Definitions

 * 1)  head
 * 2) hair; hairstyle
 * 3) beginning or end
 * 4) top; tip; end
 * 5) chief; boss; leader
 * 6) remnant; end
 * 7) first; leading
 * 8)  first
 * 9)  station
 * 10) side; aspect
 * 11)  area; location
 * 12)  at the same time; simultaneously
 * 13)  plug; connector;
 * 1) remnant; end
 * 2) first; leading
 * 3)  first
 * 4)  station
 * 5) side; aspect
 * 6)  area; location
 * 7)  at the same time; simultaneously
 * 8)  plug; connector;
 * 1)  first
 * 2)  station
 * 3) side; aspect
 * 4)  area; location
 * 5)  at the same time; simultaneously
 * 6)  plug; connector;
 * 1) side; aspect
 * 2)  area; location
 * 3)  at the same time; simultaneously
 * 4)  plug; connector;
 * 1)  at the same time; simultaneously
 * 2)  plug; connector;
 * 1)  plug; connector;

Descendants
Others:

Kanji

 * 1) head
 * 2) counter for large animals

Etymology 1
Probably from. First cited in the ten-volume  of 934.

ja derivation. Theories include:
 * Compound of . This is problematic phonetically, as  appears historically as ama or ame, not as just a
 * Compound of, referring to the head as a moxibustion point. This is also problematic phonetically, as the shift from ate to ata necessitates a change in meaning of the underlying verb.  This is also problematic semantically, as the  term refers more specifically to a  or.
 * Compound of, referring to the most important part of the body. However, the use of  in this way is again problematic.  Moreover,  appears in ' dating to the 900s CE, while 頭 (atama) with a sense of  appears in the ' dated 938 CE, leaving insufficient time for either the semantic or phonetic drift required.

Historically, this term first appears with a sense of, in reference to the soft place on the top of an infant's head where the bones of the skull have not yet fused. As such, a more likely derivation might be as a compound of.

Noun

 * 1) head (body part)
 * 2)  the fontanelle part of the skull
 * 1)  the fontanelle part of the skull
 * 1)  the fontanelle part of the skull

Etymology 2
From. Found as a standalone noun in the ', completed some time after 759 CE, and as a counter in the ', dating to 712 CE.

Pronunciation

 * The pitch accent for the counter depends on the preceding noun.

Counter

 * 1) a head, as when counting people, or cattle or other livestock

Noun

 * 1)  the head as a whole
 * 2)  boss, leader
 * 3)  top part of a Chinese character
 * 4)  the head of a doll

Etymology 3
Cognate with and shift in meaning from, spelled in kanji as or.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology 4
Cognate with, from a general sense of.

Noun

 * 1)  head

Etymology 5
Cognate with, , ,.

Some sources derive this as a shift from. However, the phonology and semantics for this do not fit (changing to, and repurposing the adjectivizing suffix  to instead form a noun). The modern verb tsubureru had the form tsuburu in older stages of the language. The tsuburi reading for may more likely represent a nominalization derived from this older verb, following normal patterns for creating nouns from verbs.

Compare.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology 6
From tsuburi above. Bilabial plosive becomes bilabial nasal.

Noun

 * 1) head
 * 2) hair of the head

Etymology 7
Shortened from tsumuri above.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology 8
→ →  →  →

Compound of either or  (likely cognates) with the suffix.

Alternatively, may be an alteration from +.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology 9
Contraction of.

Noun

 * 1)  head

Usage notes
Often spelled in hiragana, as.

Etymology 10
→ →

From. The  reading, so likely an earlier borrowing.

Noun

 * 1) head

Usage notes
This reading is more often found in compounds, such as.

Etymology 11
From. The  reading, so likely a later borrowing. The shift from initial to voiceless  is due to influence or reborrowing from a later stage of the Chinese language. Compare modern reading tóu,  tau4,  tao5.

Counter

 * 1) counter for certain relatively large animals, or for livestock animals; "head"
 * 2) counter for insects (used only in biology)
 * 1) counter for insects (used only in biology)
 * 1) counter for insects (used only in biology)
 * 1) counter for insects (used only in biology)

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology
From.

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head
 * 2) an intelligent person

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head
 * 2) an intelligent person

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head

Han character

 * 1)  a head

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head

Etymology
Cognate with mainland, dialectal , itself probably a compound of +.

Noun

 * 1) head
 * 2) an intelligent person