吉

See also: 𠮷, 喆, 吿, 告, 古, 舌, and 舎

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

吉 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 土口 (GR), four-corner 4060₁, composition ⿱士口)

Derived characters

• 洁, 桔, 結(结), 詰(诘), 銡, 頡(颉), 鮚(鲒), 喆, 䓀, 臺, 嚞, 髻

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 175, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3289
• Dae Jaweon: page 389, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 576, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5409

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		吉
alternative forms		𠮷

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 吉
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (吉) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
秸	*kriːl, *kriːd
髻	*kiːds
夡	*kʰids
鴶	*kriːd
袺	*kriːd, *kiːd
頡	*kriːd, *ɡiːd
劼	*kʰriːd
硈	*kʰriːd
咭	*kʰriːd, *ɡlid, *qʰlid
黠	*ɡriːd
聐	*ŋreːd
趌	*ked, *klid, *kʰid, *ɡrid
結	*kiːd
拮	*kiːd, *klid
桔	*kiːd
狤	*kiːd, *klid, *ɡrid
擷	*qʰiːd, *ɡiːd
襭	*ɡiːd
翓	*ɡiːd
纈	*ɡiːd
吉	*klid
郆	*kid
詰	*kʰid
蛣	*kʰid
佶	*ɡlid, *ɡrid
鮚	*ɡrid
姞	*ɡrid
欯	*qʰlid
恄	*qʰlid

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-kjit (“happy; pleased”) (STEDT). Also compare Tibetan སྐྱིད་པ (skyid pa, “to be happy”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Cantonese sense of “empty” arises from avoidance of 空 (hung1), which is homophonous to 凶 (hung1, “inauspicious”).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 吉

1. auspicious; lucky
2. good
3. (Cantonese, euphemistic) empty

   • 橫掂有間房吉咗喺度，不如租畀人住啊。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     横掂有间房吉咗喺度，不如租畀人住啊。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     waang⁴ dim⁶ jau⁵ gaan¹ fong^4-2 gat¹ zo² hai² dou⁶, bat¹ jyu⁴ zou¹ bei² jan⁴ zyu⁶ aa¹. [Jyutping]

     Since there's an empty room, why don't we rent it out?

4. Short for 吉林 (Jílín, “Jilin Province”).
5. a surname

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Japanese

Kanji

吉

(Jōyō kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: きち (kichi, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: きつ (kitsu, Jōyō)
• Kun: よい (yoi, 吉い); よし (yoshi, 吉し)

Kanji in this term
吉
きち Grade: S
on'yomi

Kanji in this term
吉
きつ Grade: S
on'yomi

Noun

吉(きち) or 吉(きつ) • (kichi or kitsu) 

1. good luck

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Korean

Hanja

吉 (eum 길 (gil))

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

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Vietnamese

Han character

吉: Hán Nôm readings: cát, kiết

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

References

• Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển Hà Nội 1942
• Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
• Vũ Văn Kính: Đại Tự Điển Chữ Nôm, NXB Văn Nghệ, Ho Chi Minh Ville