吸

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 口 (“mouth”) + phonetic 及 – to inhale through the mouth. Note that 及 originally derives from “grab”, hence connotations of “grab through the mouth, inhale”.

Han character

吸 (radical 30 口+4, 7 strokes, cangjie input 口弓竹水 (RNHE), four-corner 6704₇, composition ⿰口及)

1. inhale, suck in
2. absorb
3. attract

References

• KangXi: page 179, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3372
• Dae Jaweon: page 397, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 594, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5438

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Cantonese

Hanzi

吸 (Yale kap1, ngap1)

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Japanese

Kanji

吸 (grade 6 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: きゅう (kyū)
• Kun: すう (sū)

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Korean

Hanja

吸 (hangeul 흡, revised heup, McCune-Reischauer hŭp)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

吸 (pinyin xī (xi1), Wade-Giles hsi¹)

Compounds

• 吸引

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Middle Chinese

Han character

吸 (xyip)

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Vietnamese

Han character

吸 (hấp, cộp, cạp, hớp, húp, hút)