初

Translingual

Etymology

Ideogrammic compound (會意): 衤 + 刀: start making clothes (衣) by cutting (刀) the cloth.

Han character

初 (radical 18 刀+5, 7 strokes, cangjie input 中尸竹 (LSH), four-corner 3722₀, composition ⿰衤刀)

1. beginning, initial, primary

References

• KangXi: page 137, character 33
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1911
• Dae Jaweon: page 310, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 327, character 22
• Unihan data for U+521D

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

初 (Yale cho1)

---

Japanese

Kanji

初

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. beginning, start, first

Readings

• On: しょ (sho), そ (so)
• Kun: はじめ (hajime), はつ (hatsu), うい (ui)
• Nanori: はじめ (hajime), し (shi), もと (moto)

Compounds

• 初雪 (はつゆき, hatsuyuki) the first snow
• 初心 (しょしん, shoshin) original intention
• 初心者 (しょしんしゃ, shoshinsha) beginner
• 最初 (さいしょ, saisho) first
• 初速度 (しょそくど, shosokudo) initial velocity
• 初夏 (しょか, shoka) the beginning of summer
• 初春 (しょしゅん, shoshun) the beginning of spring
• 初秋 (しょしゅう, shoshū) the beginning of autumn
• 初冬 (しょとう, shotō) the beginning of winter
• 初誕生 (はつたんじょう, hatsutanjō) first birthday

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese.

upi > uɸi > uwi > ui.

Noun

初 (hiragana うい, historical hiragana うひ, romaji ui)

1. the first; a start

Prefix

初 (hiragana うい, historical hiragana うひ, romaji ui-)

1. first

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese.

patu > ɸatu > hatu

Noun

初 (hiragana はつ, romaji hatsu)

1. the first; a start
2. first sexual relations

Prefix

初 (hiragana はつ, romaji hatsu-)

1. first

Etymology 3

From 始め (hajime, “beginning, first”).

Proper noun

初 (hiragana はじめ, romaji Hajime)

1. A male given name

---

Korean

Hanja

初 (hangeul 초 (cho), revised cho, McCune-Reischauer ch'o)

---

Mandarin

Hanzi

初 (Pinyin chū (chu1), Wade-Giles ch'u¹)

---

Middle Chinese

Han character

初 (*chriu)

---

Vietnamese

Han character

初 (sơn, thơ, xưa, xơ)