量

Translingual

Han character

量 (Kangxi radical 166, 里+5, 12 strokes, cangjie input 日一田土 (AMWG), four-corner 6010₄, composition ⿱旦里)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1292, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 40138
• Dae Jaweon: page 1794, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3683, character 2
• Unihan data for U+91CF

---

Chinese

simp. and trad.		量
alternative forms		𣊹 𨤥 𨤦 ⿱旦力 second round simplified

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 量
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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

	Old Chinese
糧	*raŋ
量	*raŋ, *raŋs

Inconclusive. In the oracle bone and bronze scripts, the most common form was 日 (“sun”) + 東 (“bag; east”). Here are a few proposed interpretations as an ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) :

• 日 was sometimes replaced with 田, so Qiu Xigui thinks that it may be the original character of 糧 (OC *raŋ, “grain field”).
• Yu Xingwu interprets it as measuring something under the sun.
• Guo Moruo interprets it as the sun rising in the east – original character of 亮 (OC *raŋs).

Shuowen interprets this as a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *raŋ, *raŋs) : phonetic 曏 (OC *qʰjaŋʔ, *qʰjaŋs, *qʰaŋʔ, *qʰaŋs) + 重 (“weight; heavy”).

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *(g/k)raŋ (“to count, to measure”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007). Cognate to Tibetan བགྲང (bgrang, “to count”), Khaling ʾkhran-ne, Burmese [script needed] (kʰraŋ, “to measure capacity”), Nusu xɹɯ³¹ (“to count”).

Pronunciation 2 is possibly a *-s suffixed exopassive derivation of Pronunciation 1; thus it means "what is measured → a measure" and is cognate to Tibetan [script needed] (grangs, “number”) (see also Unger (1983))

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 量

1. to measure
2. to estimate; to evaluate

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 量

1. (historical) measuring vessel, such as the dou or hu
2. measure; measurement; quantity
3. capacity; volume
4. (Buddhist logic) pramana
5. (Southern Min) large steelyard
6. to estimate; to approximate

Compounds

(deprecated template usage)

---

Japanese

Kanji

量

(Fourth grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: りょう (ryō, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: りょう (ryō, Jōyō)
• Kun: はかる (hakaru, 量る, Jōyō)

Compounds

Compounds

• 音量(おんりょう) (onryō): sound volume
• 狭量(きょうりょう) (kyōryō)
• 斤量(きんりょう) (kinryō): weight
• 計量(けいりょう) (keiryō)
• 考量(こうりょう) (kōryō)
• 降水(こうすい)量(りょう) (kōsuiryō)
• 少量(しょうりょう) (shōryō), 小量(しょうりょう) (shōryō)
• 定量(ていりょう) (teiryō)
• 量感(りょうかん) (ryōkan)
• 量産(りょうさん) (ryōsan)
• 量子(りょうし) (ryōshi): quantum

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
量
りょう Grade: 4
on'yomi

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Chinese 量 (ljang^H, “measure”).

Noun

量(りょう) • (ryō) ^{←りやう (ryau)?}

1. volume, amount

   交通(こうつう)量(りょう)

   kōtsū-ryō

   amount of traffic

2. (Buddhist logic) pramana

   比(ひ)量(りょう)

   hi-ryō

   pramana of Reasoning

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
量
はか Grade: 4
kun'yomi

Cognate with 計り (hakari).

Noun

量(はか) • (haka)  Form of 量り (hakari)

1. an instrument to measure

---

Korean

Hanja

量 • (ryang>yang) (hangeul 량>양, revised ryang>yang, McCune–Reischauer ryang>yang, Yale lyang>yang)

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

---

Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 量 (lường, lượng, nhân)

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