仙

仙 U+4ED9, 仙 ← 付[U+4ED8] CJK Unified Ideographs 仚 →[U+4EDA] Stroke order

仙 (Kangxi radical 9, 人+3, 5 strokes, Cangjie input 人山 (OU), four-corner 22270, composition ⿰亻山)

• 𣳈, 苮, 𥬍, 𬏣

• 僊 (archaic form of 仙)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 92, character 13
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 374
• Dae Jaweon: page 196, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 114, character 3
• Unihan data for U+4ED9

Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sen): semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 山 (OC *sreːn, “mountain”) — a person moving into a mountain to practise becoming immortal.

Originally 僊. The current form is first attested in the clerical script of the Han dynasty.

simp. and trad. 仙 alternative forms

A relatively late word, perhaps Sino-Tibetan (Schuessler, 2007). Compare Tibetan གཤེན (gshen, “shaman”), as in Tibetan གཤེན་རབ (gshen rab, “Shenrab”), the founder of the Tibetan religion Bon, although this might be a loan from Chinese (ibid.).

Starostin sets up Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s[ă]n (“a kind of demon”), comparing it to Tibetan བསེན་མོ (bsen mo, “female devil”) and Jingpho sawn (“malignant female nat”). Note also, along similar lines, Burmese စုန်း (cun:, “witch”).

仙

1. (Taoism) xian (an immortal; celestial being)
2. (figurative) extraordinary person 詩仙／诗仙 ― shīxiān ― great poet; epithet of Li Bai
3. (agent affix, chiefly Southern Min, honorific) expert; a title for a person with a specific expertise 相命仙 [Taiwanese Hokkien] ― siòng-miā-sian [Pe̍h-ōe-jī] ― fortuneteller
4. (agent affix, chiefly Southern Min, ironic) person with some specific hobby or addiction 筊仙 [Taiwanese Hokkien] ― kiáu-sian [Pe̍h-ōe-jī] ― gambler
5. a euphemism for the deceased 仙逝 ― xiānshì ― to pass away
6. (Southern Min) Classifier for deity, idol, statue, doll. alternative form of 身 (sian) Synonym: 尊 (zūn) 大仙的王爺公，細仙的王爺囝。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]大仙的王爷公，细仙的王爷囝。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]Tōa sian-ê ông-iâ kong, sè sian-ê ông-iâ kiáⁿ. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī](idiomatic) Idols of Wang Ye’s are everywhere. Literally, “The bigger idol is a senior Wang Ye; the smaller idol is a junior Wang Ye.”
7. (Southern Min) (with negative) whatsoever, any way 仙講都毋聽／仙讲都毋听 [Taiwanese Hokkien] ― sian kóng to m̄ thiaⁿ [Pe̍h-ōe-jī] ― won’t listen (to you) no matter what you say
8. a surname

Others:

• → Thai: เซียน (siian) (via Hokkien)

• 真人 (zhēnrén)

simp. and trad. 仙 alternative forms 銑／铣 Min Nan

Borrowed from English cent.

仙

1. (Cantonese, Southern Min, Malaysian and Singapore Mandarin) cent (Classifier: 個／个 c) 五仙硬幣／五仙硬币 [Cantonese] ― ng5 sin1 ngaang6 bai6 [Jyutping] ― five-cent coin 佢係私生子，佢老豆死嗰陣一個仙都冇分畀佢。 [Cantonese, trad.]佢系私生子，佢老豆死嗰阵一个仙都冇分畀佢。 [Cantonese, simp.]keoi5 hai6 si1 sang1 zi2, keoi5 lou5 dau6 sei2 go2 zan6 jat1 go3 sin1 dou1 mou5 fan1 bei2 keoi5. [Jyutping]He is a son born out of wedlock, so when his dad died, he didn’t even inherit one cent.

• 斗零, 神沙, 鏰／镚 (bèng)

From clipping of English senior.

仙 (Hong Kong Cantonese, university slang)

1. senior
2. (of a senior) to berate a junior

• “仙”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014-
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long]; 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu]; 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying]; 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019), “仙”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 213.

(Jōyō kanji)

• Go-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)
• Nanori: そま (soma)、のり (nori)、ひさ (hisa)

Kanji in this term 仙 せんGrade: S on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 仙 (MC sjen, literally “immortal”). Compare modern Mandarin reading xiān and Cantonese reading sin1.

• IPA(key): [sẽ̞ɴ]

仙(せん) • (sen)

1. a sage or hermit, an enlightened person, usually immortal and ageless
2. (mythology) short for 仙人 (sennin): a wizard or mage; an immortal living as a hermit in the mountains
3. by extension, the region or area where a sennin lives
4. the supernatural techniques for becoming immortal and ageless
5. a person of exceptional talent

Kanji in this term 仙 せんとGrade: S irregular

Borrowed from English cent.[1][2] The kanji spelling is an example of jukujikun.

For pronunciation and definitions of 仙 – see the following entry. 【セント】 [noun] [1860] cent (various national currencies, 1⁄100 of a unit) (This term, 仙, is an alternative spelling (obsolete) of the above term.)

This word is almost always spelled in katakana as セント.

• 弗(ドル) (doru)

• “△仙”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎[2] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015-2026

From Middle Chinese 仙 (MC sjen). Recorded as Middle Korean 션 (syen) (Yale: syen) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [sʰʌ̹n]
• Phonetic hangul: [선]

仙 (eumhun 신선 선 (sinseon seon))

1. hanja form? of 선 (“a sage or hermit, an enlightened person, usually immortal and ageless”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [3]

仙: Hán Việt readings: tiên[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

1. chữ Hán form of tiên
   1. (Chinese mythology, Taoism) xian (an immortal; celestial being)
   2. (by extension, Western fantasy) a fine, beautiful creature such as a fairy, a pixie, an undine, an elf, a dryad, a mermaid, etc.