Wiktionary

昆

See also: 皆 and 崑
昆 U+6606, 昆
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6606
← 昅
[U+6605] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 昇 →
[U+6607]

Translingual edit

Han character edit

昆 (Kangxi radical 72, 日+4, 8 strokes, cangjie input 日心心 (APP), four-corner 60711, composition ⿱日比)

Derived characters edit

References edit

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 490, character 39
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13792
  • Dae Jaweon: page 852, character 9
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1489, character 9
  • Unihan data for U+6606

Chinese edit

trad. 昆
simp. # 昆
alternative forms 晜
𥊽
㒭
𣋥
𧲟

Glyph origin edit

Historical forms of the character 昆
Western Zhou Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
     
Characters in the same phonetic series (昆) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
昆 *kuːn
琨 *kuːn
鯤 *kuːn
菎 *kuːn
崐 *kuːn
蜫 *kuːn
惃 *kuːn, *kuːnʔ
錕 *kuːn, *kuːnʔ
猑 *kuːn
騉 *kuːn
緄 *kuːnʔ
輥 *kuːnʔ
棍 *kuːns, *ɡuːnʔ
餛 *ɡuːn
混 *ɡuːnʔ
焜 *ɡuːnʔ
倱 *ɡuːnʔ
掍 *ɡuːnʔ
箟 *kʰrun

Pictogram (象形) – the body and legs of an insect.

Etymology 1 edit

trad. 昆
simp. # 昆
alternative forms 蜫
䖵
“elder brother”
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(g/k)əw-n (“elder brother; senior male relative”); cognate with 舅 (OC *ɡuʔ, “maternal uncle”) (Benedict, 1972; STEDT).
Alternatively, it may be related to Middle Mon ကော (kao, “elder brother”), with nominal suffix -n added (Schuessler, 2007).
“descendants; later”
Perhaps from Proto-Mon-Khmer *kuun (“child”); cognate with Min 囝 (“son; child”) (Schuessler, 2007) and with ancient Chu dialect 觀 (OC *koːn, “child; offspring”) (Ye, 2014); cf. also some rear meanings of the characters 丱 (OC *kroːns, “young child”), 鯤 (OC *kuːn, “roe; fish egg”) and 鰥 (OC *kruːn, “roe”) (ibid.). In modern Wu dialects the character 官 (OC *koːn) is used to mean "children" (ibid.).
“many; numerous”
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-kul (“twenty; all”); cognate with 群 (OC *ɡlun, “herd; all”) (Schuessler, 2007; STEDT).
“quetta-”
Phono-semantic matching of English quetta-. Coined by the China National Committee for Terminology in Science and Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation on World Metrology Day in 2023 (20 May 2023).

昆 is pronounced with aspirated initial /kʰ/ instead of the expected /k/ in the majority of modern varieties of Chinese. The /k/ sound in 昆 (MC kwon) was changed to /kʰ/ during its historical development to avoid homophony with 褌 (MC kwon, “underclothing”), a word that was historically in vernacular use (Hirayama, 2005).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation edit

Note:
  • gwan1 - literary;
  • kwan1 - vernacular.
Rime
Character 昆
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 見 (28)
Final (韻) 魂 (55)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Closed
Division (等) I
Fanqie 古渾切
Baxter kwon
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/kuən/
Pan
Wuyun 		/kuon/
Shao
Rongfen 		/kuən/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/kwən/
Li
Rong 		/kuən/
Wang
Li 		/kuən/
Bernard
Karlgren 		/kuən/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		gūn
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		gwan1
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 昆
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		kūn
Middle
Chinese 		‹ kwon ›
Old
Chinese 		/*[k]ˁu[n]/
English elder brother

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 昆
Reading # 1/1
No. 7519
Phonetic
component 		昆
Rime
group 		文
Rime
subdivision 		2
Corresponding
MC rime 		昆
Old
Chinese 		/*kuːn/
Notes 金文象日下二人比肩同作，
造意同眾而省文，
如夕月異語共義轉註例

Definitions edit

昆

  1. (obsolete) together
  2. (literary) elder brother
  3. (literary) descendants
  4. (obsolete) later
  5. (obsolete) many; numerous
    昆蟲／昆虫  ―  kūnchóng  ―  insect
  6. (obsolete) Alternative form of 焜 (kūn)
  7. Short for 昆明 (Kūnmíng).
    成昆鐵路／成昆铁路  ―  Chéng Kūn Tiělù  ―  Chengdu–Kunming railway
  8. a surname
  9. (Mainland China) quetta- (SI unit prefix)
    Synonym: 奎 (kuí) (Taiwan)
Compounds edit

Etymology 2 edit

Pronunciation edit

Definitions edit

昆

  1. Only used in 昆侖／昆仑 (húnlún), alternative form of 渾淪／浑沦

Etymology 3 edit

Pronunciation edit

Definitions edit

昆

  1. † Alternative form of 混 (“to unite”)
  2. 54th tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "unity" (𝌻)

Etymology 4 edit

trad. 昆
simp. # 昆
alternative forms 坤

Pronunciation edit

Definitions edit

昆

  1. (Cantonese) to deceive; to fool

Etymology 5 edit

For pronunciation and definitions of 昆 – see 崑.
(This character is the simplified and variant traditional form of 崑).
Notes:

References edit

Japanese edit

Kanji edit

昆

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

  1. A swarm of or an organism that swarms (e.g. bugs), an organism that forms in large groups (e.g. kombu)
  2. elder brother
  3. descendants, great-great-great-great grandchild

Readings edit

Compounds edit

Compounds

Korean edit

Etymology edit

From Middle Chinese 昆 (MC kwon). Recorded as Middle Korean 곤 (kwon) (Yale: kwon) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Hanja edit

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

Wikisource

昆 (eumhun 맏형 곤 (macheong gon))

  1. Hanja form? of 곤 (“swarm”).
  2. Hanja form? of 곤 (“the eldest brother”).

Compounds edit

Compounds

See also edit

References edit

  • 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [2]

Vietnamese edit

Han character edit

昆: Hán Việt readings: côn
昆: Hán Nôm readings: con, gon

Noun edit

昆 • (con)

  1. Nôm form of con (“child”).
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