自

See also 白, 目, and 且

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Etymology

Originally Pictogram (象形) of a nose; in China (and East Asia) one points at one’s nose to indicate oneself, hence Ideogram (指事) of “self”.

Original meaning of “nose” has been lost; compare 白 (originally “acorn”, now “white”).

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

自 (radical 132 自+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹月山 (HBU), four-corner 2600₀)

1. self, private, personal
2. ​ from
3. (obsolete) nose

   This character has lost its original meaning of nose; see instead 鼻.

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/自
• 息

Related characters

• 直

References

• KangXi: page 1000, character 7
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30095
• Dae Jaweon: page 1452, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3046, character 1
• Unihan data for U+81EA

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

自 (jyutping zi6, Yale ji6)

---

Hakka

Hanzi

自 (POJ tshṳ̀, Guangdong tse⁵ [Meixian], ts'it⁷, ts'ii⁶ [Hailu], ts'it⁷, ts'ii⁵ [Siyan], ts'ii⁵ [Kwangtung], ts'u³ [Bao'an, Dongguan], ts'u⁵, ts'i² [Hong Kong], Hagfa Pinyim ci2, ci4, cid5)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

---

Japanese

Kanji

自 (grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: し (shi), じ (ji)
• Kun: みずから (mizukara), おのずから (onozukara), より (yori)

Compounds

各自 (かくじ, kakuji) 自我 (じが, jiga) 自戒 (じかい, jikai) 自覚 (じかく, jikaku) 自画自賛 (じがじさん, jigajisan) 自己 (じこ, jiko) 自己撞着 (じこどうちゃく, jikodōchaku) 自在 (じざい, jizai) 自作 (じさく, jisaku) 自作自演 (じさくじえん, jisakujien)

自主 (じしゅ, jishu) 自信 (じしん, jishin) 自身 (じしん, jishin) 自責 (じせき, jiseki) 自然 (しぜん, shizen) 自尊 (じそん, jison) 自尊心 (じそんしん, jisonshin) 自体 (じたい, jitai) 自治 (じち, jichi) 自動 (じどう, jidō)

自働 (じどう, jidō) 自動車 (じどうしゃ, jidōsha) 自分 (じぶん, jibun) 自暴自棄 (じぼうじき, jibōjiki) 自問自答 (じもんじとう, jimonjitō) 自由 (じゆう, jiyū) 自由自在 (じゆうじざい, jiyūjizai) 自力 (じりき, jiriki) 自立 (じりつ, jiritsu) 独自 (どくじ, dokuji) 自殺 (じさつ, jisatsu)

---

Korean

Hanja

自 (hangeul 자, revised ja, McCune-Reischauer cha, Yale ca)

Compounds

• 自主
• 自註
• 自動車 (자동차)

---

Mandarin

Hanzi

自 (pinyin zì (zi4), Wade-Giles tzu⁴)

Compounds

• 自動
• 自信
• 自己
• 自慰

---

Vietnamese

Han character

自 (tự, từ, tợ)