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Definition 2025

球

球

See also: 毬

Translingual

Han character

球 (radical 96 玉+7, 11 strokes, cangjie input 一土戈十水 (MGIJE), four-corner 13132, composition ⿰⺩求)

References

  • KangXi: page 732, character 29
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 21011
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1144, character 6
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1114, character 15
  • Unihan data for U+7403

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 球
alt. forms 毬

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 球
Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (求) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
救 *kus
求 *ɡu
球 *ɡu
逑 *ɡu
賕 *ɡu
蛷 *ɡu
莍 *ɡu
殏 *ɡu
梂 *ɡu
俅 *ɡu
脙 *ɡu, *qʰu
絿 *ɡu
銶 *ɡu
毬 *ɡu
捄 *ɡu, *ko
觩 *ɡu

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ɡu) : semantic ⺩ + phonetic 求 ‎(OC *ɡu).

Etymology

"Ball", earlier some "kind of jade". Bodman (1980) relates this to Wuming Zhuang klauA2 ‎(“ball”), and relates 俅 (qiú, “gem-adorned”) to Tibetan གྲུ ‎(gru, “lustre of gems”). This character had a softened initial in Proto-Min.

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 球
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 群 (30)
Final (韻) 尤 (136)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 巨鳩切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /ɡɨu/
Pan
Wuyun		 /ɡiu/
Shao
Rongfen		 /ɡiəu/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /guw/
Li
Rong		 /ɡiu/
Wang
Li		 /ɡĭəu/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /gi̯ə̯u/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 qiú
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 球
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 qiú
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ gjuw ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[ɡ](r)[u]/
English "ball"?

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 球
Reading # 1/1
No. 10561
Phonetic
component		 求
Rime
group		 幽
Rime
subdivision		 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 𧚍
Old
Chinese		 /*ɡu/

Definitions

球

  1. †beautiful jade
  2. †percussion instrument made of jade
  3. ball, globe, orb
  4. (mathematics) sphere
  5. round, spherical
  6. earth
  7. ball (in sports)
  8. ball game
  9. Classifier for spherical objects.
  10. (Teochew, Xiang) Classifier for stringed objects. string
  11. (dialectal Mandarin, Jin, vulgar) Expletive. Often used in the form of ……個球. Underlying meaning may be "testes".

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

球

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
球
きゅう
Grade: 3
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 球 ‎(gjuw, “ball, sphere, orb”).

Pronunciation

Noun

球 ‎(hiragana きゅう, romaji kyū, historical hiragana きう)

  1. sphere; globe; orb
  2. (baseball) pitch

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
球
たま
Grade: 3
kun'yomi

Pronunciation

Noun

球 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 毬, hiragana たま, romaji tama)

  1. ball
  2. bulb (as in a light bulb)

References

  1. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. 1 2 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

球 • ‎(gu) (hangeul 구, revised gu, McCune-Reischauer ku, Yale kwu)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

球 (cầu)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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