筆

See also: 笔

Translingual

Japanese	筆
Simplified	笔
Traditional	筆

Han character

筆 (Kangxi radical 118, 竹+6, 12 strokes, cangjie input 竹中手 (HLQ), four-corner 8850₇, composition ⿱⺮聿)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 882, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25987
• Dae Jaweon: page 1310, character 27
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 2970, character 9
• Unihan data for U+7B46

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Chinese

trad.		筆
simp.		笔

Glyph origin

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

	Old Chinese
筆	*prud
潷	*prud
硉	*ruːd
律	*rud
葎	*b·rud
聿	*b·lud
銉	*lud

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *prud) : semantic 竹 (“bamboo”) + phonetic 聿 (OC *b·lud, “writing brush”) – a hand holding a brush 聿. The bamboo (竹) refers to the material of traditional Chinese brushes.

Etymology

Benedict (1972) surmises that this might be a loan from Austro-Tai into Sino-Tibetan; cf. Proto-Austronesian *bulut (“hairy filaments of certain plants, husk”) (Cebuano bulut).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 筆

1. writing brush
2. pen; pencil

   你有筆嗎，記一下這個電話號碼。 [MSC, trad.]
   你有笔吗，记一下这个电话号码。 [MSC, simp.]

   Nǐ yǒu bǐ ma, jì yīxià zhè ge diànhuà hàomǎ. [Pinyin]

   Do you have a pen to write this phone number?

3. ^† to write; to compose
4. Classifier for writing or drawing: stroke (of Chinese characters, in a painting, etc.)

   你這個字寫錯了，這裡少了一筆。 [MSC, trad.]
   你这个字写错了，这里少了一笔。 [MSC, simp.]

   Nǐ zhè ge zì xiě cuò le, zhèlǐ shào le yī bǐ. [Pinyin]

   The character you have miswritten lacks one stroke here.

5. Classifier for sums of money and deals. ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

   我會盡早還給你這筆錢。 [MSC, trad.]
   我会尽早还给你这笔钱。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒ huì jìnzǎo háigěi nǐ zhè bǐ qián. [Pinyin]

   I will return the money as soon as possible.

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (筆):

• → Japanese: 筆(ひつ) (hitsu)
• → Korean: 필(筆) (pil)
• → Vietnamese: bút (筆)

Others

• → Buryat: ᠪᠢᠷ (bir) / биирэ (biire)
• → Korean: 붓 (but, “writing brush”)
• , ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ (bithe, “book”), ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝᠰᡳ (bithesi, “scribe”)
  • → Chinese: 筆帖式／笔帖式 (bǐtièshì, “scribe during the Qing Dynasty”)
• • → Mongolian: ᠪᠢᠷ (bir) / бийр (biir)
• → Proto-Turkic:
  • , 𐰋𐰃𐱅𐰏 (bitig, “inscription, book”)
  • → Mongolian: ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠬᠦ (bičikü) / бичих (bičix), ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ (bičig) / бичиг (bičig)
• → Zhuang: bit

Further reading

• “Entry #8842”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

(deprecated template usage)

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Japanese

Kanji

筆

(Third grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: ひち (hichi)
• Kan-on: ひつ (hitsu, Jōyō)
• Kun: ふで (fude, 筆, Jōyō); ふんで (funde, 筆); ふみて (fumite, 筆)
• Nanori: くし (kushi)

Compounds

Compounds

• 筆跡(ひっせき) (hisseki)
• 筆記(ひっき) (hikki)
• 筆脈(ひつみゃく) (hitsumyaku)
• 執筆(しっぴつ) (shippitsu)
• 筆順(ひつじゅん) (hitsujun)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
筆
ふで Grade: 3
kun'yomi

/fumite/ → /fũnde/ → /fude/

Shift in pronunciation from fumite below, caused by a regular shift where medial み (mi) causes nasalization of the preceding vowel and voicing of the following consonant, with the nasalization reverting in some cases. Now the most common pronunciation in modern (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Japanese.

Noun

筆(ふで) • (fude) 

1. a writing brush, a painting brush, a pen
2. writing:
   1. the act of writing
   2. something written
   3. handwriting, how someone writes

Usage notes

The pen sense is more commonly expressed using the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] English-derived term ペン (pen).

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
筆
ふんで Grade: 3
kun'yomi

/fumite/ → /fũnde/ → /funde/

Shift in pronunciation from fumite below, caused by a regular shift where medial み (mi) causes nasalization of the preceding vowel and voicing of the following consonant. Listed with this reading in the 観智院 (Kanchi-in) edition of the 11th- or 12th-century 類聚名義抄 (Ruiju Myōgishō) dictionary.

Superseded by the fude reading above in modern Japanese.

Noun

筆(ふんで) • (funde) 

1. (obsolete) same as for fude above: brush; pen; writing

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
筆
ふみて Grade: 3
kun'yomi

Compound of 文 (fumi, “writing”) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”). Appears with this reading in the Man'yōshū, circa 759.

Superseded by the fude reading above in modern (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Japanese.

Noun

筆(ふみて) • (fumite) 

1. (obsolete) same as for fude above: brush; pen; writing

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
筆
ひつ Grade: 3
on'yomi

/pitu/ → /fitu/ → /hitu/

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Chinese 筆／笔 ( pit , “writing brush”). Compare modern (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Hakka and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Min Nan pit, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Mandarin bǐ.

Noun

筆(ひつ) • (hitsu) 

1. a brush, a pen, a writing or drawing implement
2. the mark made by a brush or pen
3. writing or drawing with a brush or pen
4. an allotment of land, such as for agriculture or housing (from the way that a description of the land and the owner would be written down in the survey register)

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Korean

Hanja

筆 • (pil) (hangeul 필, McCune–Reischauer p'il, Yale phil)

1. writing brush
2. write
3. stroke

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Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 筆 (bút)

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