Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

See images of
Radical 146 ?

? (radical 146, ?+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input (MCW), four-corner 1060₀, composition ???)

Derived characters

• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ?

References

• KangXi: page 1128, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 34763
• Dae Jaweon: page 1595, character 19
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2805, character 2
• Unihan data for U+897F

Chinese

Glyph origin

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

Pictogram () - a bag or basket, borrowed for phonetic value. Compare ? (OC *to:?, "bundle > east"). Traditionally explained as a pictogram of a bird settling into its nest, which by analogy with the setting of the sun means "west". This etymology has been disputed (Sears), but Sagart (2004) stands by it.

Etymology

The word is traditionally reconstructed to have a /*s/-initial in Old Chinese, e.g. /*s?:l/ in Zhengzhang (2003). However, recent scholarship has suggested that the Old Chinese initial should instead be reconstructed as /*s-n?/, one of the reasons being ? appears to be the phonetic in ? (n?i), the archaic graphic variant of ? (OC *n?:?). The new reconstruction, /*s-nr/ in Baxter and Sagart (2014), also accounts for how ? can be the phonetic in ? (sh?n, "to smile"). For more information, see Sagart (2004), Baxter and Sagart (2014) and Nohara (2018).

In light of the new construction with the initial consonant cluster /*s-n?/, the possibilities of the etymology of ?, aside from being cognate with ?/? (q?, "to roost; to rest") (B-S OC /*s-nr/), include:

• Related to Tibetan (ner ba, "to sink; to fall gradually") (Unger, 1990).
• Related to Chepang (nel?-, "to go down; to sink"), which may be the same etymon as the Written Tibetan word above (Schuessler, 2007).
• Related to the root ? (n?, "to stop") (OC /*nr?/ for intransitive form, /*nr?-s/ for transitive form in Baxter and Sagart (2014)).
• An Austroasiatic nominal n-infix derivative from the root "go down", as in Old Mon cnis ("ghat") < Old Mon cis ("to go down") , with Proto-Austroasiatic *tsn- > Proto-Sinitic *sn-. Therefore, this etymon literally means "the place where one goes down to > Mon "ghat" > OC "nest, west". The base form is ? (OC *?sli:ls) via Austroasiatic (Schuessler, 2007).

Pronunciation

Definitions

?

1. west; western
2. (~?) Xi (a village in Dongsong, Luoning, Luoyang, Henan, China)

Coordinate terms

• (compass points)

	?
?		?
	?

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• Japanese:?() (sh?, "west wind (mahjong tile)")

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 "Ky?iku" kanji)

1. west
2. Europe, European
3. kanji used to transliterate foreign languages
4. Short for (Supein): Spain, Spanish
5. autumn

Readings

• Go-on: (sai, J?y?)
• Kan-on: (sei, J?y?)
• T?-on: (sui); ? (su)
• Kun: (nishi, ?, J?y?)
• Nanori: (aki); (iri); (kawachi) ^{(kafati, historical)}; (hishi); (mura)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From adnominal (inishi, "leaving, passing"), as the direction of sunset. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) ?? [nìshí] (Heiban - [0])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [i?i]

Noun

?() o (nishi) 

1. west (one of the four cardinal directions)

   Antonym: ? (higashi)

2. the West
3. wind blowing from the west

   Antonym: ? (higashi)

4. (theater) in kabuki:
   1. the left side of the stage in the Edo-style
   2. the right side of the stage in Kyoto and Osaka styles
5. (sumo) lower-ranked wrestlers listed on the left side of a banzuke

   Antonym: ? (higashi)

6. a capitalist state (originally western Europe, as opposed to Eastern Bloc countries)

   Synonym: (nishigawa)

   Antonym: ? (higashi)

Coordinate terms

• (compass points)

(?) (seihoku)/(?) (hokusei)	?() (kita)	(?) (t?hoku)/(?) (hokut?)
?() (nishi)		?() (higashi)
(?) (seinan)/(?) (nansei)	?() (minami)	(?) (t?nan)/(?) (nant?)

Derived terms

Idioms

• ?()?(?)??(?) -> ()()?(?) (nishi muku samurai, "westward-facing samurai -> mnemonic for months with less than 31 days, with ? standing for ")

Proverbs

Proper noun

?() o (Nishi) 

1. (Buddhism) Synonym of ? (Saih? J?do): the western paradise of Amitabha Buddha
2. (Buddhism) Short for ? (Nishi Hongan-ji): a Buddhist temple in Kyoto

   Synonym: (o-Nishi)

3. (historical) a red-light district in Edo-period Shinjuku (as it was located west of Edo Castle)
4. a place name, especially the name of various wards in major cities throughout Japan
5. a surname

Etymology 2

Possibly a corruption of Mandarin ? (x?, "west").

Noun

?() o (sh?) 

1. (mahjong) west wind (mahjong tile)

   Hypernym: (kazehai, fanpai)

2. (mahjong) a ? (yaku, "winning hand") with a triplet or quad of west wind tiles; depending on wind round and player's seat wind, it is worth either 1 or 2 ? (han, "doubles")

   Hypernym: (yakuhai, yaku-pai)

See also

• ?()?() (kazehai, "wind tiles"): ?() (ton, "east wind"), ?() (nan, "south wind"), ?() (sh?, "west wind"), ?() (p?, "north wind")

References

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese ? (MC sei).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [s]
• Phonetic hangeul: [?]

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

?

Wikisource

? (eumhun ? (seonyeok seo))

1. Hanja form^? of ? ("west; western").
2. Hanja form^? of ? ("westward").
3. Hanja form^? of ? ("permeate; seep; saturate").

Compounds

References

• ( ) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, ?/?. [1]

Okinawan

Kanji

(grade 2 "Ky?iku" kanji)

Readings

• Kun: (iri, ?)

Noun

? (hiragana , romaji iri)

1. the West

Compounds

Vietnamese

Han character

?: Hán Nôm readings: tây

1. west
2. West (the Western world)

• S?n Tây
• Tây S?n
• Sài Gòn
• phía tây ?

References

• Thi?u Ch?u : Hán Vi?t T? ?i?n Hà N?i 1942
• Tr?n V?n Chánh: T? ?i?n Hán Vi?t NXB Tr?, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
• V? V?n Kính?i T? ?i?n Ch? Nôm, NXB V?n Ngh?, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999