夙

夙 U+5919, 夙 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5919 ← 夘 [U+5918] CJK Unified Ideographs 多 → [U+591A]

Translingual

Han character

夙 (Kangxi radical 36, 夕+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹弓一弓戈 (HNMNI), four-corner 7721₀, composition ⿵几歹)

Derived characters

• 㑉 洬 珟 㓘

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 246, character 7
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5755
• Dae Jaweon: page 489, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 861, character 7
• Unihan data for U+5919

Chinese

trad.		夙
simp. #		夙
alternative forms		𠈇 𡖊 𡖕

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 夙
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 (夙) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
洬	*suːɡ
夙	*suɡ

The oracle bone script consisted of 月 (“moon”) and 丮, and resembled a man holding the moon, probably representing the worship of the moon. Alternatively, it might represent a person working under the moon in the early morning when the moon has not set.

In some forms of its bronze inscription, 月 corrupted into 夕.

丮 later got reduced into 凡.

Etymology

Schuessler (2007) compares this with Proto-Lolo-Burmese *C-sok ~ *V-sok (“morning; morrow”), which STEDT derives from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s(j)u-ŋ/k (“to wake up; morning; clear-headed; to sober up”). Burmese သောကြာ (sau:kra, “Venus”) is unrelated as it ultimately derives from Sanskrit शुक्र (śukra).

Schuessler (2007) also considers this to be related to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *m-sow (“to arise; to awake; to awaken”), as the morning is the time to arise. Other possible Chinese comparanda of this Tibeto-Burman word are 搜 (OC *sru, “to move”) (as in 搜搜), 速 (OC *sloːɡ, “speedy”), 聳 (OC *sloŋʔ, “to urge on”) (STEDT).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): sù (su⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄙㄨˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): suk¹
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): siuk
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): siok

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: sù
    • Zhuyin: ㄙㄨˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: sù
    • Wade–Giles: su⁴
    • Yale: sù
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: suh
    • Palladius: су (su)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /su⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: suk¹
    • Yale: sūk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: suk⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: sug¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sʊk̚⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: siuk
    • Hakka Romanization System: xiug`
    • Hagfa Pinyim: xiug⁵
    • Sinological IPA: /si̯uk̚²/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: siok
    • Tâi-lô: siok
    • Phofsit Daibuun: siog
    • IPA (Xiamen): /siɔk̚³²/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /siɔk̚⁵/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /siɔk̚³²/
    • IPA (Taipei): /siɔk̚³²/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /siɔk̚³²/

---

• Middle Chinese: sjuwk

Rime
Character	夙
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	心 (16)
Final (韻)	東 (4)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	息逐切
Baxter	sjuwk
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/sɨuk̚/
Pan Wuyun	/siuk̚/
Shao Rongfen	/siuk̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/suwk̚/
Li Rong	/siuk̚/
Wang Li	/sĭuk̚/
Bernard Karlgren	/si̯uk̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	su
Expected Cantonese Reflex	suk1

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[s]uk/

  (Zhengzhang): /*suɡ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	夙
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	sù
Middle Chinese	‹ sjuwk ›
Old Chinese	/*[s]uk/
English	early morning
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	夙
Reading #	1/1
No.	12098
Phonetic component	夙
Rime group	覺
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	肅
Old Chinese	/*suɡ/

Definitions

夙

1. early morning
2. early
3. old; past
4. since old days

Compounds

• 償得夙願／偿得夙愿
• 夙世冤家
• 夙世因緣／夙世因缘
• 夙仇
• 夙儒
• 夙夜 (sùyè)
• 夙夜不懈
• 夙夜匪懈 (sùyèfěixiè)
• 夙夜在公 (sùyèzàigōng)
• 夙夜為謀／夙夜为谋
• 夙心
• 夙心往志
• 夙志 (sùzhì)
• 夙怨 (sùyuàn)
• 夙敵／夙敌
• 夙昔 (sùxī)
• 夙緣／夙缘 (sùyuán)
• 夙聞／夙闻
• 夙興／夙兴
• 夙興夜寐／夙兴夜寐 (sùxīngyèmèi)
• 夙負盛名／夙负盛名
• 夙辦／夙办
• 夙願／夙愿 (sùyuàn)
• 夙願以償／夙愿以偿
• 夙駕／夙驾
• 星言夙駕／星言夙驾
• 星陳夙駕／星陈夙驾
• 首丘夙願／首丘夙愿

 

Japanese

Kanji

夙

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• Go-on: すく (suku)
• Kan-on: しゅく (shuku)
• Kun: つとに (tsutoni, 夙に); はやい (hayai, 夙い)

Korean

Hanja

夙 • (suk) (hangeul 숙, revised suk, McCune–Reischauer suk)

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Vietnamese

Han character

夙: Hán Nôm readings: túc

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