曹

See also: 曺

Translingual

Han character

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

Derived characters

• 遭 漕 槽

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 502, character 13
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14297
• Dae Jaweon: page 876, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): 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
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 (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
• Northern Min (KCR): cǎu
• Eastern Min (BUC): cò̤
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): chô / chô͘
• Wu (Wugniu)
  • (Northern): ⁶zau

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: cáo
    • Zhuyin: ㄘㄠˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: cáo
    • Wade–Giles: tsʻao²
    • Yale: tsáu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tsaur
    • Palladius: цао (cao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɑʊ̯³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: cou⁴
    • Yale: chòuh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsou⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: cou⁴
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰou̯²¹/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chhò
    • Hakka Romanization System: coˇ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: co²
    • Sinological IPA: /t͡sʰo¹¹/
• Northern Min
  • (Jian'ou)
    • Kienning Colloquial Romanized: cǎu
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sau²¹/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: cò̤
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡so⁵³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: General Taiwanese, Xiamen, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chô
    • Tâi-lô: tsô
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zooi
    • IPA (Taipei, Xiamen): /t͡so²⁴/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /t͡sɤ²³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡so¹³/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chô͘
    • Tâi-lô: tsôo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: zoo
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /t͡sɔ²⁴/
• Wu
  • (Shanghai):
    • Wugniu: ⁶zau
    • MiniDict: zau^去
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ³zau
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /zɔ²³/

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• Middle Chinese: dzaw

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
Baxter	dzaw
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
Expected Cantonese Reflex	cou4

• 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-tsˁu/
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

(deprecated template usage) 曹

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

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #41170”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.

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Japanese

Kanji

曹

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. cadet
2. friend

Readings

• Go-on: 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

• 軍曹(ぐんそう) (gunsō)
• 曹長(そうちょう) (sōchō)
• 御曹司(おんぞうし) (onzōshi)
• 重曹(じゅうそう) (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

(deprecated template usage) 曹 (Tào)

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