大

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See also: 犬, 太, 六, and 丈

Translingual[edit]

Stroke order
大-order.gif

Han character[edit]

Commons-logo.svg
See images of
Radical 37 大

大 (radical 37 大+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 大 (K), four-corner 40030/40800, composition ⿻一人)

  1. Kangxi radical #37, ⼤ ‎(“big”).
Derived characters[edit]
Related characters[edit]

References[edit]

  • KangXi: page 248, character 1
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5831
  • Dae Jaweon: page 492, character 25
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 520, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+5927

Chinese[edit]

simp. and trad.
 大

Glyph origin[edit]

Historical forms of the character 大
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Bamboo and silk script Large seal script Small seal script
大-oracle.svg 大-bronze.svg 大-silk.svg 大-bigseal.svg 大-seal.svg

Ideogram (指事): a person 人 with arms stretched out as far as possible, implying the meaning of big/great/large. This is in contrast to 小 which represents a person 人 with lowered arms implying small in size.

Compare with 尢, which is a man with bent legs with the meaning of weak.

Compare also 文, which is a man with arms outstretched and a crest or tattoo on his chest denoting culture or language, and to 夭, which is a man with arms outstretched and leaning to side (running), denoting youth.

Etymology[edit]

Three pronunciations can be found in Modern Standard Chinese:

  1. Modern dà, from Middle Chinese dɑL, from Old Chinese *lˤaːts. The phonological development from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese is irregular. Original sense: "big" (Shijing). Derived senses: "size" (Mozi), "thick" (Zhuangzi), "to respect" (Mengzi), "to respect" (Xunzi), "to extol" (Gongyang Zhuan), "to exaggerate" (Classic of Rites), "arrogant" (Guoyu), "good" (I Ching), "(of time) long" (Erya), "senior" (Shijing).
  2. Modern dài, from Middle Chinese dɑiL, from Old Chinese *lˤaːts. This Middle Chinese pronunciation-preserving (i.e. literary) pronunciation occurs only in compounds such as 大夫 (dàifu, “doctor”) and 大王 (dàiwang, “(in operas, old novels) king; ringleader”).
  3. Modern tài, from Middle Chinese tʰɑiL, from Old Chinese *l̥ˤaːts. This is the ancient form of 太 (tài, “too, excessively”) and is obsolete in modern languages.

Pronunciation 2), the diphthong reading, is traditionally regarded as the correct one. However, the monophthong reading 1) has been recorded as early as Han Dynasty, and Sui-Tang rhyme books record both. Both readings are reflected in Sino-xenic readings in non-Sinitic languages, although the diphthong readings dominate in compounds. Axel Schüssler postulates that all pronunciations can eventually be traced back to liquid initials, i.e. 1,2) **laːts, 3) **hlaːts.

The three pronunciations are cognate. Within Chinese, they are cognate with 太 (tài, OC *tʰaːds, "too, excessively"), 泰 (tài, OC *tʰaːds, "big", note that this character also means "to reach", perhaps unrelated), 誕 (dàn, OC *l̥aːnʔ, "big, magniloquent, ridiculous"). There are no unambiguous Tibeto-Burman cognates. Proto-Tibeto-Burman *taj ‎(“big”), from which came Written Tibetan མཐེ་བོ ‎(mthe bo, “thumb”), Nung tʰɛ ("big, large, great"), Mikir tʰè, ketʰè ("id."), Written Burmese တယ် ‎(tai, “very”), is often compared with. There is no final -s in the Tibeto-Burman words, but a -y, which, according to James Matisoff, "indicates emergent quality in stative verbs". Also compare Chinese 多 (duō, OC *ʔl̥aːl, "many, much"), 都 (dū > dōu, OC *taː, "all").

Pronunciation 1[edit]

  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 大 (大小)
Mandarin Beijing /ta⁵¹/
Harbin /ta⁵³/
Tianjin /tɑ⁵³/
Jinan /ta²¹/
Qingdao /ta²¹³/
Zhengzhou /ta³¹²/
Xi'an /ta⁴⁴/
Xining /ta²¹³/
Yinchuan /ta¹³/
Lanzhou /ta¹³/
Ürümqi /ta²¹³/
Wuhan /ta³⁵/
Chengdu /ta¹³/
Guiyang /ta²¹³/
Kunming /ta̠²¹²/
Nanjing /tɑ⁴⁴/
Hefei /ta⁵³/
Jin Taiyuan /ta⁴⁵/
Pingyao /tei³⁵/
/tɑ³⁵/
Hohhot /ta⁵⁵/
Wu Shanghai /da²³/
/du²³/
Suzhou /dəu³¹/
Hangzhou /dɑ¹³/
/do¹³/
Wenzhou /da²²/
/dɤu²²/
Hui Shexian /tʰa²²/
/tʰo²²/
Tunxi /tʰo¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /ta⁵⁵/
/tai¹¹/
Xiangtan /dai²¹/
Gan Nanchang /tʰo²¹/ ～娘,姑母
Hakka Meixian /tʰai⁵³/
Taoyuan /tʰɑi⁵⁵/
Cantonese Guangzhou /tai²²/
Nanning /tai²²/
Hong Kong /tai²²/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /to²²/
/tua²²/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /tuɑi²⁴²/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /tuɛ⁴⁴/
Shantou (Min Nan) /tai³⁵/
/tua³¹/
Haikou (Min Nan) /ʔda³⁵/
/ʔdua²³/
Rime
Character 大 大
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Initial (聲) 定 (7) 定 (7)
Final (韻) 泰 (25) 歌 (94)
Tone (調) Departing (H) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) I I
Fanqie 徒蓋切 唐佐切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /dɑiH/ /dɑH/
Pan
Wuyun		 /dɑiH/ /dɑH/
Shao
Rongfen		 /dɑiH/ /dɑH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /dajH/ /daH/
Li
Rong		 /dɑiH/ /dɑH/
Wang
Li		 /dɑiH/ /dɑH/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /dʱɑiH/ /dʱɑH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 dài duò
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 大 大
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 dà dà
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ daH › ‹ dajH ›
Old
Chinese		 /*lˤat-s/ (MC F!) /*lˤa[t]-s/
English big big

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 大 大
Reading # 1/2 2/2
No. 1934 1939
Phonetic
component		 大 大
Rime
group		 祭 祭
Rime
subdivision		 1 1
Corresponding
MC rime		 䭾 大
Old
Chinese		 /*daːds/ /*daːds/

Definitions[edit]

大

  1. big, large, huge
    Antonyms: 小 (xiǎo)
  2. big, great, deep
  3. main, major
  4. loud, heavy
    • 昨天下大雨。  ―  Zuótiān xià dàyǔ.  ―  There was heavy rain yesterday.
  5. mature; grown up
    ⇒ 老
    • 你多大了？  ―  Nǐ duō dà le?  ―  How old are you?
    • 她比他大。  ―  Tā bǐ tā dà.  ―  She is older than him.
  6. greatly, very much
  7. (dialectal) father
  8. (dialectal) father's elder or younger brother
  9. Short for 大學／大学 (dàxué, “university”). Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
    北大  ―  Běi Dà  ―  Peking University

Pronunciation 2[edit]

Definitions[edit]

大

  1. Only used in 大夫 (dàifu, “doctor”).
  2. Only used in 大城 (“Daicheng, Hebei”).
  3. Only used in 大王 (dàwáng, “(in operas, old novels) king; ringleader”).

Pronunciation 3[edit]

For pronunciation and definitions of 大 – see 太.
(This character, 大, is an ancient form of 太.)

Compounds[edit]

Derived terms from 大

Descendants[edit]

Sino-Xenic (大):

Japanese[edit]

Kanji[edit]

See also:
大

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings[edit]

Compounds[edit]

Compounds

Etymology 1[edit]

Kanji in this term
大
だい
Grade: 1
on'yomi

Pronunciation[edit]

Prefix[edit]

大 ‎(hiragana だい, romaji dai-)

  1. big, large
  2. the large part of
  3. university
Usage notes[edit]

This is often the first half two-character shorthand name of universities, for example 東大 ‎(Tokyo University, “Tōdai”)

Etymology 2[edit]

Prefix[edit]

大 ‎(hiragana おお, romaji ō-, historical hiragana おほ)

  1. big; great

References[edit]

  1. ^ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  2. ^ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean[edit]

Hanja[edit]

大 • ‎(dae, tae)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul): 대, 태 (revised: dae, tae, McCune-Reischauer: tae, t'ae, Yale: tay, thay)
  • Name (hangeul): 크다 (revised: keuda, McCune-Reischauer: k'ŭda, Yale: khuta)
  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds[edit]

Mulam[edit]

Adjective[edit]

大 ‎(lo4)

  1. big

Vietnamese[edit]

Han character[edit]

大 (đại)

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

References[edit]

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