曹

曹 U+66F9, 曹 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-66F9 ← 書 [U+66F8] CJK Unified Ideographs 曺 → [U+66FA]

See also: 曺

Translingual

Han character

曹 (radical 73 曰+7, 11 strokes, cangjie input 廿田日 (TWA), four-corner 5560₆, composition ⿱⿻一曲曰)

1. plaintiff and defendant
2. division department of the central government in ancient times
3. official
4. group, team
5. A surname​.
6. Cao, the name of a vassal state in China during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-221 BC), covering roughly the area of modern-day Dingtao County in Heze, southwestern Shandong province

Derived characters

• 遭 漕 槽

References

• KangXi: page 502, character 13
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14297
• Dae Jaweon: page 876, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1511, character 6
• Unihan data for U+66F9

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		曹

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 曹
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Characters in the same phonetic series (曹) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
	Old Chinese
遭	*ʔsluː
糟	*ʔsluː
醩	*ʔsluːu
傮	*ʔsluː
槽	*ʔsluː, *zluː
曹	*zluː
螬	*zluː
漕	*zluː, *zluːs
嘈	*zluː
艚	*zluː
褿	*zluː
蓸	*zluː
慒	*lju, *zluːŋ

東 + 東 + 曰; the top two 東 have merged and now resemble 曲 with an extra stroke.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): cáo (cao²)

  (Zhuyin): ㄘㄠˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): cou⁴
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): chhò
• Min Dong (BUC): cò̤
• Min Nan (POJ): chô͘ / chô
• Wu (Wiktionary): zau (T3)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: cáo
    • Zhuyin: ㄘㄠˊ
    • Wade-Giles: ts'ao²
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tsaur
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɑʊ̯³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: cou⁴
    • Yale: chòuh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsou⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: cou⁴
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰou̯²¹/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chhò
    • Hakka Romanization System: coˇ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: co²
    • IPA: /t͡sʰo¹¹/
• Min Dong
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: cò̤
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡so⁵³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chô͘
    • Tâi-lô: tsôo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zoo
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡sɔ²⁴/
  • (Hokkien: mainstream Taiwanese, Xiamen, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chô
    • Tâi-lô: tsô
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zooi
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡so²⁴/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sɤ²³/
    • IPA (Xiamen): /t͡so²⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡so¹³/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • Wiktionary: zau (T3)
    • IPA ^(key): /z̻ɔ²³/

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• Middle Chinese: /d͡zɑu/▼

Rime
Character	曹
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	從 (15)
Final (韻)	豪 (89)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	昨勞切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/d͡zɑu/
Pan Wuyun	/d͡zɑu/
Shao Rongfen	/d͡zɑu/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/d͡zaw/
Li Rong	/d͡zɑu/
Wang Li	/d͡zɑu/
Bernard Karlgren	/d͡zʱɑu/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	cáo

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*N-tsˤu/

  (Zhengzhang): /*zluː/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	曹
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	cáo
Middle Chinese	‹ dzaw ›
Old Chinese	/*N-tsˤu/
English	come together; pair
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	曹
Reading #	1/1
No.	1154
Phonetic component	曹
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	曹
Old Chinese	/*zluː/
Notes	金文下非曰字，上從二東，象列置衆種子之器，乃槽初文

Definitions

曹

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

Compounds

• 三曹對案／三曹对案
• 仙曹
• 倒曹
• 儀曹／仪曹
• 兒曹／儿曹
• 分曹
• 功曹 (gōngcáo)
• 印曹
• 坐曹
• 天曹
• 市曹 (shìcáo)
• 徐母罵曹／徐母骂曹
• 我曹

• 才當曹斗／才当曹斗
• 捉放曹
• 擊鼓罵曹／击鼓骂曹
• 敖曹
• 曹丘
• 曹全碑
• 曹劌論戰／曹刿论战
• 曹國舅／曹国舅
• 曹娥江
• 曹娥碑
• 曹族
• 曹柯之盟
• 曹洞宗

• 曹社之謀／曹社之谋
• 曹門／曹门
• 曹魏 (Cáowèi)
• 法曹
• 清曹峻府
• 爾曹／尔曹
• 綁赴市曹／绑赴市曹 (bǎng fù shìcáo)
• 蕭曹／萧曹
• 蕭規曹隨／萧规曹随
• 賊曹／贼曹
• 部曹
• 陰曹／阴曹
• 陰曹地府／阴曹地府

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #41170”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

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Japanese

Kanji

曹

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. cadet
2. friend

Readings

• Goon: ぞう (zō)^{←ざう (zau, historical)}
• Kan’on: そう (sō, Jōyō)^{←さう (sau, historical)}
• Kun: つかさ (tsukasa, 曹); ともがら (tomogara, 曹); へや (heya)

Compounds

• 軍 (ぐん)曹 (そう) (gunsō)
• 曹 (そう)長 (ちょう) (sōchō)
• 御 (おん)曹 (ぞう)司 (し) (onzōshi)
• 重 (じゅう)曹 (そう) (jūsō)

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Korean

Hanja

曹 • (jo) (hangeul 조, revised jo, McCune-Reischauer cho, Yale co)

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

Compounds

• 曹溪宗 (조계종)

• 六曹 (육조)

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Vietnamese

Han character

曹 (tào)

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