Zi:三

三 [sān] three; 举一反三 generalize; 第三世界 Third World [sàn] (HDC:) (旧读) 三五 (三令五申)

One monosyllabic entry in The ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (namespace Ci):

►¹sān* 三 {A} num. ①three; 3 ②more than two; several; many ◆cons. A ∼ B sì do AB repeatedly/haphazardly ‖ shuō∼dàosì 说∼道四 gossip

The Shuōwén Seal form of 三 sān ‘three’ (the number of the three realms: heaven, earth, man), combines 一 yī ‘one’ (representing ‘man’), and 二 èr ‘two’ (representing heaven above earth), to give 三 sān ‘three’; the old (大写) form 弎 encloses it in 弋.
    Three horizontal strokes, symbolizing the number ‘three’. Variant forms used in special contexts include the following: 叄, 𠬅, 叁, 參, 参, 仨, 𠫽, 弎, 〣, ㊂.
    Compare: 一(弌) yī ‘one’, 二(弍) èr ‘two’; ☰乾 Qián ‘yáng/male’ (⚊阳); 王 wáng ‘king’ (unifying the three realms); 土 tǔ ‘earth’.
    Compare: 彡 shān ‘beautiful/lush/full hair; natural/decorative lines’; 参(𠻝參) shēn ‘Orion’ (參星); 齐/齊(𠄷) qí ‘neat/orderly’.
    Note: 《汉语大词典》 has an old reading 三 “sàn” (fourth tone, not first tone) meaning “多次, 再三” ‘repeatedly’, as in 三五 “sānwǔ” (旧读 “sànwǔ”), ‘三令五申’. This distinction, attested in Late Middle Chinese, seems to be much older. Such a reading would only be used in modern times in an anachronistic archaicized artificial pronunciation.
    HDZ: 三 : sān : (数词) 二加一的和; 多数, 多次 (举一反三); (复姓) (三闾氏)
►references: Guǎngyùn:224.12,443.29; Henshall:23; Karlgren:AD766,GSR648a; Hànyǔ Dà Zìdiǎn:1.4.3; Lindqvist:336; Mathews:5415; Kāngxī Zìdiǎn:76.05; Bǐshùn Guīfàn:002.0.04; Wáng(1993):192; EDOC:1
►components: 一
 ►Cantonese: saam\ saam-
►stroke 三 (... strokes)
►list characters containing 三 as a component
►list words containing 三 (most common words first)
Unicode: U+4E09
►web links for ‘三’
search web for ‘三’: ►Google ►GT ►Baidu ►Bing ►Yahoo

The Wenlin Zidian (namespace Zi)
URL: https://wenlin.co/wow/Zi:%E4%B8%89
Refresh this page