Wiktionary

后

See also: 後
后 U+540E, 后
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-540E
← 名
[U+540D] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 吏 →
[U+540F]

Translingual

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Stroke order
 

Han character

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后 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 竹一口 (HMR), four-corner 72261, composition ⿸𠂋口)

Derived characters

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References

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  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 176, character 1
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3298
  • Dae Jaweon: page 393, character 1
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 580, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+540E

Chinese

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Wikipedia has articles on:
 
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Glyph origin

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Historical forms of the character 后
Shang Spring and Autumn 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 (后) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
垢 *koːʔ
詬 *koːʔ, *kʰoːs, *qʰoːs
茩 *koːʔ
姤 *koːs
銗 *ɡoː
骺 *ɡoː
后 *ɡoːʔ, *ɡoːs
垕 *ɡoːʔ
郈 *ɡoːʔ
逅 *ɡoːs
鲘
缿 *ɡoːs, *ɡroːŋʔ

Oracle bone inscriptions often wrote 后 as 毓, depicting a woman giving birth. Wang Guowei posits the meaning extended from childbirth to succession, then to empress. In the modern form, the birthing figure would be 𠂆 and the child figure 𠮛.[1]

According to Kōjien[zh 1] and 学研漢和大字典, ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 人 (“person (variant form)”) + 口 (“hole”) — a depiction of a person's (人) anus, with the additional meaning of “behind”, “rear”, as well as coming to mean “emperor/empress”, who would live in a palace “behind” worldly troubles.

Etymology 1

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simp. and trad.
 后

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-gaw (“head”). Cognate with Tibetan གོ (go, “head; headman”), མགོ (mgo, “head, top, beginning”).

Pronunciation

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Rime
Character 后 后
Reading # 1/2 2/2
Initial (聲) 匣 (33) 匣 (33)
Final (韻) 侯 (137) 侯 (137)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) I I
Fanqie 胡口切 胡遘切
Baxter huwX huwH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/ɦəuX/ /ɦəuH/
Pan
Wuyun 		/ɦəuX/ /ɦəuH/
Shao
Rongfen 		/ɣəuX/ /ɣəuH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/ɦəwX/ /ɦəwH/
Li
Rong 		/ɣuX/ /ɣuH/
Wang
Li 		/ɣəuX/ /ɣəuH/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/ɣə̯uX/ /ɣə̯uH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		hòu hòu
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		hau6 hau6
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 后
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		hòu
Middle
Chinese 		‹ huwX ›
Old
Chinese 		/*ɢˁ(r)oʔ/
English sovereign; queen

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 后 后
Reading # 1/2 2/2
No. 5168 5172
Phonetic
component 		后 后
Rime
group 		侯 侯
Rime
subdivision 		0 0
Corresponding
MC rime 		厚 𠋫
Old
Chinese 		/*ɡoːʔ/ /*ɡoːs/

Definitions

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后

  1. † king; ruler; emperor
    后稷  ―  Hòujì  ―  Hou Ji, (literally, “Lord of Millet”) - legendary Chinese cultural hero and progenitor of the Zhou dynasty
  2. ⁜ queen; empress
    王后  ―  wánghòu  ―  queen
  3. (chess) queen
  4. a surname
Usage notes
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  • The surname 后 (hòu) is not to be confused with the surname 後／后 (hòu).

Compounds

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See also

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Chess pieces in Mandarin · 國際象棋棋子／国际象棋棋子 (guójì xiàngqí qízǐ) (layout · text)
           
王 (wáng),
國王／国王 (guówáng) 		后 (hòu),
皇后 (huánghòu) 		車／车 (jū),
城堡 (chéngbǎo) 		象 (xiàng),
主教 (zhǔjiào) 		馬／马 (mǎ),
騎士／骑士 (qíshì) 		兵 (bīng)

Etymology 2

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For pronunciation and definitions of 后 – see 後 (“behind; rear; back; later; after; afterwards; etc.”).
(This character is the simplified and variant form of 後).
Notes:

Usage notes

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In the traditional-Chinese literate context, the use of 后 (hòu) as a variant of 後 is mostly confined to the occurrences in a few well-known historical texts such as the Great Learning (《大學》).

References

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  1. ^ Shinmura, Izuru, editor (1998), 広辞苑 [Kōjien] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN

Japanese

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Kanji

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后

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

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  • Go-on: ぐ (gu)
  • Kan-on: こう (kō, Jōyō)←こう (kou, historical)
  • Kan’yō-on: ご (go)、ごう (gō)
  • Kun: きさき (kisaki, 后)、きさい (kisai, 后)

Compounds

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Etymology 1

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Kanji in this term
后
こう
Grade: 6
kan'on

From Middle Chinese 后 (MC huwX|huwH).

Affix

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后(こう) • (kō) 

  1. monarch, ruler, sovereign
  2. empress, queen, or other female monarch
Derived terms
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Derived terms

Etymology 2

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Kanji in this term
后
きさき
Grade: 6
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
妃

Derivation unknown.

Possibly originally a contraction of 君幸 (kimi saki, literally “lordly good fortune”). (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

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Noun

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后(きさき) • (kisaki) 

  1. an empress
    Synonym: 皇后 (kōgō)
  2. any other wife of a male aristocrat, such as a queen
Derived terms
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Derived terms

Etymology 3

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Kanji in this term
后
きさい
Grade: 6
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
皇后

/kisaki/ → /kisaĩ/ → /kisai/

Sound shift from kisaki above.

Appears to be less common in isolation than the kisaki reading above.[3][2]

Noun

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后(きさい) • (kisai) 

  1. (uncommon, archaic) Same as きさき (kisaki) above
    • c. 1001–1014, Murasaki Shikibu, Genji Monogatari (Agemaki)
      「もし、世(よ)の中(なか)移(うつ)りて、帝(みかど)・后(きさい)の、思(おぼ)しおきつるままにも、おはしまさば...」
      “Moshi, yononaka utsurite, mikado, kisai no, oboshi-okitsuru mama ni mo, owashimasaba...”
      (please add an English translation of this example)
Derived terms
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Etymology 4

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Kanji in this term
后
ご
Grade: 6
kan'yōon
For pronunciation and definitions of 后 – see the following entry.
【後ご】2
[noun] later, afterwards, some time after the present
[suffix] after
(This term, 后, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

References

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  1. ^ 季旭昇，2004《說文新證》，台北：藝文印書館印行，2014年9月第二版。p.708-709
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

Korean

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Etymology

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From Middle Chinese 后 (MC huwH).

Historical readings

Pronunciation

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Hanja

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Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

Wikisource

后 (eumhun 임금 후 (imgeum hu))

  1. hanja form? of 후 (“ruler; monarch”)
  2. (suffix) hanja form? of 후 (“queen; empress”)

Compounds

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Compounds

References

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  • 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [1]

Vietnamese

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Han character

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后: Hán Nôm readings: hậu

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