黃

See also: 黄 and 冓

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

黃 (Kangxi radical 201, 黃+0, 12 strokes, cangjie input 廿一田金 (TMWC), four-corner 4480₆, composition ⿱⿱廿一⿱由八(GHJK) or ⿱⿱廿一⿱田八(T))

1. Kangxi radical #201, ⿈.
2. Shuowen Jiezi radical №486

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/黃
• 僙, 墴, 嫹, 彉, 撗, 潢, 獚, 曂, 䐵, 熿, 璜, 穔, 䊣, 䌙, 蟥, 觵, 趪, 䤑, 䪄, 䬝, 䮲, 鱑, 䵃, 斢, 鷬, 廣, 癀, 簧 (Exception: Contains 黃 in all regions except mainland China which contains simplified 黄)
• 㣴, 橫, 𮘺, 𮧾 (Contains 黃 in all regions)
• 磺, 鐄 (Exception: All regions except mainland China and Vietnam which contains 黄)
• 𠾛 (Exception: Contains 黃 for Taiwan glyph and 黄 for Vietnam glyph)

Related characters

• 黄 (Japanese shinjitai and Simplified Chinese)

Further reading

Wikisource

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1516, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 47926
• Dae Jaweon: page 2046, character 11
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4596, character 2
• Unihan data for U+9EC3

---

Chinese

trad.		黃/黄
simp.		黄

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 黃
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 (黃) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
僙	*kʷaːŋ
廣	*kʷaːŋʔ
鄺	*kʷaːŋʔ, *qʰʷaːŋ
懬	*kʰʷaːŋʔ, *kʰaːŋʔ
爌	*kʰʷaːŋʔ, *kʰʷaːŋs, *qʰʷaːŋʔ
曠	*kʰʷaːŋs
矌	*kʰʷaːŋs
壙	*kʰʷaːŋs
纊	*kʰʷaːŋs
黃	*ɡʷaːŋ
璜	*ɡʷaːŋ
潢	*ɡʷaːŋ, *ɡʷaːŋs
簧	*ɡʷaːŋ
癀	*ɡʷaːŋ
鱑	*ɡʷaːŋ
獚	*ɡʷaːŋ
蟥	*ɡʷaːŋ
趪	*ɡʷaːŋ
櫎	*ɡʷaːŋʔ
擴	*ɡʷlaːŋs, *kʰʷaːɡ
瀇	*qʷaːŋʔ
獷	*kʷaŋʔ, *kʷraːŋʔ
觵	*kʷraːŋ
礦	*kʷraːŋʔ
鑛	*kʷraːŋʔ
穬	*kʷraːŋʔ
橫	*ɡʷraːŋ, *ɡʷraːŋs, *kʷaːŋ
黌	*ɡʷraːŋ
鐄	*ɡʷraːŋ
嚝	*qʰʷraːŋ
彉	*kʷaːɡ, *qʰʷaːɡ
彍	*kʷaːɡ, *qʰʷaːɡ

According to Shuowen, it is both a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɡʷaːŋ) and ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : phonetic 炗 (, “light”) + semantic 田 (“field”) – the color of earth, with 炗 being the ancient form of 光 (OC *kʷaːŋ, *kʷaːŋs, “light”). However, this interpretation is likely erroneous as 廿 at the top was formed as a result of corruption of 口 in the bronze inscription.

Chi (2010) proposes that 黃 was originally a pictogram (象形) and the original character of 尪 (OC *qʷaːŋ, “a disabled person with a protruding chest or abdomen”). It has been phonetically borrowed for "yellow" since the era of the oracle bone script. He (1998) noted the possible ritual of burning disabled people with a protruding chest or abdomen to pray for rain as mentioned in Zuozhuan. The 口 in the upper part of the bronze inscription of 黃 might be depicting the disabled person's face facing upwards.

Li (2012), on the other hand, proposes that 黃 was originally a pictogram (象形) and the original character of 璜 (OC *ɡʷaːŋ, “semicircular jade”) as the 口 in the oracle bone script resembles a ring of jade, so the character would carry the meaning of "a man wearing a ring of jade on his chest". The meaning "yellow" is the result of rebus.

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hwaŋ (“shine; bright; yellow”). Cognate with 光 (OC *kʷaːŋ, *kʷaːŋs, “light; bright”), 曠 (OC *kʰʷaːŋs, “bright; well-lit”), Burmese ဝင်း (wang:, “bright”).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 黃

1. yellow

   黃色／黄色  ―  huángsè  ―  yellow color

2. Short for 蛋黃／蛋黄 (dànhuáng, “yolk”).

   雙黃白蓮蓉月餅 [Cantonese, trad.]
   双黄白莲蓉月饼 [Cantonese, simp.]

   soeng¹ wong^4-2 baak⁶ lin⁴ jung⁴ jyut⁶ beng² [Jyutping]

   double yolk and lotus paste mooncake

3. Short for 蟹黃／蟹黄 (xièhuáng).
4. (colloquial) pornographic; lewd

   黃片／黄片  ―  huángpiàn  ―  adult movie

5. (colloquial) to fizzle out; to fall through

   某些公司真是絕了，收啥黃啥。 [MSC, trad.]
   某些公司真是绝了，收啥黄啥。 [MSC, simp.]

   Mǒuxiē gōngsī zhēn shi jué le, shōu shá huáng shá. [Pinyin]

   Some companies are really sucktastic; whatever [they] purchase flops.

   這次旅遊的興致讓扒手兒給攪黃了。 [dialectal Mandarin, trad.]
   这次旅游的兴致让扒手儿给搅黄了。 [dialectal Mandarin, simp.]

   Zhèi cì lǚyóu de xìngzhi ràng páshǒur gěi jiǎo huáng le. [Pinyin]

   The high spirit of this trip was ruined by a pickpocket.

6. (Southern Min) to ripen
7. Short for 黃帝／黄帝 (Huángdì).
8. a surname

   黃蕙-蘭 [Hokkien, trad.]
   黄蕙-兰 [Hokkien, simp.]

   Ûiⁿ Hūi-lân [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

   Oei Hui-lan (a Chinese-Indonesian socialite and First Lady of the Republic of China)

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (黃):

• → Japanese: 黄(おう) (ō); 黄(こう) (kō)
• → Korean: 황(黃) (Hwang)
• → Vietnamese: Huỳnh (黃), Hoàng (黃)

Others:

• → English: Huang, Wong, Ng
• → Malay: Oey, Oei
• → Tagalog: Ng, Uy

Compounds

(deprecated template usage)

---

Japanese

Shinjitai	黄
Kyūjitai	黃

Kanji

黃

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 黄)

1. Kyūjitai form of 黄

Readings

• Go-on: おう (ō)^{←わう (wau, historical)}
• Kan-on: こう (kō)^{←くわう (kwau, historical)}
• Kun: き (ki, 黃); こ (ko, 黃)
• Nanori: うい (ui); かつみ (katsumi); れい (rei)

---

Korean

Hanja

黃 (eumhun 누를 황 (nureul hwang))

1. yellow
2. A surname

---

Vietnamese

Han character

黃: Hán Nôm readings: hoàng, Huỳnh

1. Yellow
2. A surname

References

• Nom Foundation