絕

See also 絶, and 绝

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 糹 (“silk”) + semantic 刀 (“knife”) + phonetic 巴 — to cut silk threads.

In the simplified form 绝 (and the traditional variant 絶), the right-side components are merged into 色; however, as a standalone character, 色 has an independent origin — its resemblance to 刀 + 巴 is a coincidence.

Han character

絕 (radical 120 糸+6, 12 strokes, cangjie input 女火尸竹山 (VFSHU), four-corner 2791₇, composition ⿰糹⿱刀巴)

1. cut, sever, break off, terminate

References

• KangXi: page 922, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 27407
• Dae Jaweon: page 1355, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3396, character 4
• Unihan data for U+7D55

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Cantonese

Hanzi

絕 (traditional 絕, 絶, Yale jyut6)

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Japanese

Kanji

絕

Readings

• On: ぜつ (zetsu)
• Kun: たえる (taeru), たつ (tatsu), たやす (tayasu)

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Korean

Hanja

絕 (hangeul 절, revised jeol, McCune-Reischauer chŏl, Yale cel)

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Mandarin

simpl.		绝
trad.		絶 or 絕

Hanzi

絕 (traditional 絕, 絶, pinyin jué (jue2), Wade-Giles chüeh²)

Adjective

絕 (traditional, Pinyin jué, simplified 绝)

1. (slang) cool; awesome;

   太絕了 (way cool; awesome)

References

• 2008, Shujuan Li, Popular Chinese Expressions (流行汉语), edition 2nd (in English/Mandarin), Beijing: Sinolingua, ISBN 978-7-80200-388-0:

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Vietnamese

Han character

絕 (tuyệt)