氣
부수: 气
획수: 10획
氣 has the meanings ‘air’, ‘weather’, ‘mood’ and ‘energy’.
氣 = 气 + 米
X = semantic/phonetic + semantic
• 气 depicts wispy clouds and means ‘air’.
• 米 depicts grains of rice and means ‘food’.
氣 originally meant ‘to give food to someone’. From the Han dynasty onwards, 气 was used to mean ‘vapour’ via sound loan. This may have influenced a change of meaning in 氣 towards ‘air’ and ‘breath’.
From the meaning ‘air’ came the meaning ‘weather’. And from the meaning ‘breath’ came the meanings ‘manner’ and ‘mood’.
Evolution:
韓 = ’to give food to someone’ ➔ borrowed use ➔ ’air’ ➔ ’breath’ ➔ ’mood’
韓 = ’to give food to someone’ ➔ borrowed use ➔ ’air’ ➔ ’weather’
Mnemonic
Imagine opening the lid on a freshly cooked pot of rice 米. The steam is released into the air 气 and lightens your 氣분.
Vocab
| 氣 | 기 | spirit; energy |
| 空氣 | 공기 | air; atmosphere |
| 日氣 | 일기 | day’s weather |
| 氣象 | 기상 | weather conditions |
| 氣溫 | 기온 | temperature |
| 濕氣 | 습기 | humidity |
| 換氣 | 환기 | ventilation |
| 煙氣 | 연기 | smoke, fume |
| 感氣 | 감기 | common cold (virus) |
| 雰圍氣 | 분위기 | atmosphere; surroundings; mood |
| 氣分 | 기분 | feelings; mood |
| 勇氣 | 용기 | courage |
| 士氣 | 사기 | morale; fighting spirit |
| 人氣 | 인기 | popularity |
| 活氣 | 활기 | vitality; energy |
Other resources
Image searches
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Sogou
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CJKV
CJKV Dict
Wikitionary
Unihan Database
Korean
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Arch Chinese
ZDic
CC-Canto
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (etymology)
Chinese Boost
Japanese
Takoboto
Jisho
JLearn.net
Sakura
The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 796]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Henshall, K.G. (1998). A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, [s.v. 11]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 氣, 气, 米].
— Seely, C., Henshall, K.G., & Fan, J. (2016). The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Japanese Characters, [s.v. 12]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.