貝 U+8C9D, 貝 ← 貜[U+8C9C] CJK Unified Ideographs 貞 →[U+8C9E] ⾙ U+2F99, ⾙ ← ⾘[U+2F98] Kangxi Radicals ⾚ →[U+2F9A] Stroke order Stroke order
貝 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+0, 7 strokes, Cangjie input 月山金 (BUC), four-corner 60800, composition ⿱目八)
- Kangxi radical #154, ⾙.
- Appendix:Chinese radical/貝
- 唄, 垻, 㛝, 孭, 浿, 狽, 䢙, 梖, 㸽, 珼, 蛽, 䟺, 鋇, 鼰
- 則, 郥, 戝, 敗, 㲘, 鵙, 頁, 員, 筫, 䩀, 寶, 屓, 閴, 齎
- Kangxi Dictionary: page 1204, character 1
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36656
- Dae Jaweon: page 1665, character 2
- Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3622, character 1
- Unihan data for U+8C9D
trad. 貝 simp. 贝
Pictogram (象形) – cowrie used as currency in ancient China. Unrelated to the original version of 則. See also the top component of 得. Unrelated to 目.
Cowries were used as money in ancient China (shell money).
Possibly from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bwap (“snail”); cognate with Jingpho pawp, lapawp (“snail”), Chepang बोप् (bop, “snail”) (STEDT; Starostin; Schuessler, 2007).
Alternatively, Guo (1945) proposes that it is an ancient loanword from languages of the south (which call it bia). Since the species of sea snail used as decoration and currency—Monetaria moneta (money cowry)—is not native to the eastern seashores of China, he proposes that cowries used by the ancient Chinese dynasties in Central China must have come from the southeastern shores of China and areas further south. Compare Malay bia (“cowry”), Thai เบี้ย (bîia, “cowry shell; money”), Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɓa(a)j (“bean, small weight or coin”) > Khasi sbâi (“cowry; shell; money”), Khmer ពៃ (pɨy, “obsolete small coin”) (Schuessler, 2007). Note also Burmese ပဲ (pai:, “bean”).
貝
- shellfish; cowrie
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) money; currency
- a surname 貝聿銘／贝聿铭 ― Bèi Yùmíng ― Ieoh Ming Pei (Chinese-American architect)
- “貝”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)[3], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014-
(First grade kyōiku kanji)
- Go-on: はい (hai)
- Kan-on: はい (hai)
- Kan’yō-on: ばい (bai)
- Kun: かい (kai, 貝, Jōyō)←かひ (kafi, 貝, historical)
Kanji in this term 貝 かいGrade: 1 kun’yomi
⟨kapi1⟩ → */kapʲi/ → /kaɸi/ → /kawi/ → /kai/
From Old Japanese,[1] from Proto-Japonic *kapi. Appears voiced in the Kojiki of 712 CE in a compound, with the phonetic man’yōgana spelling 賀比,[2] and in the Man’yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.[3]
- IPA(key): [ka̠i]
- (Tokyo) かい [káꜜì] (Atamadaka – [1])[4][5][6]
貝(かい) • (kai) ←かひ (kafi)?
- [from 712] an aquatic shellfish (generally limited to mollusks with calcareous shells such as clams or snails, and excluding crustaceans such as shrimp or crabs)
Kanji in this term 貝 ばいGrade: 1 kan’yōon Alternative spellings 蛽海蠃 (rare)海螄 (rare)
Probably ultimately from Middle Chinese 貝 (MC pajH). Compare modern Min Nan pronunciation buê6, Cantonese bui3, Mandarin bèi.
First attested in 1284.[7]
- IPA(key): [ba̠i]
- (Tokyo) ばい [báꜜì] (Atamadaka – [1])[4]
貝(ばい) or 貝(バイ) • (bai) ←ばい (bai)?
- [from 1284] Babylonia japonica (Japanese babylon or Japanese ivory shell)
As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary).
- 貝貨(ばいか) (baika)
- 貝独楽(ばいごま) (baigoma)
- 貝母(ばいも) (baimo)
- “△貝”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia][4] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015-2026
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)
- (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA(key): [pʰɛ] ~ [pʰe̞]
- Phonetic hangul: [패/페]
貝 (eumhun 조개 패 (jogae pae))
- hanja form? of 패 (“clam, shellfish”)
貝: Hán Việt readings: bối[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] 貝: Nôm readings: bói[1][2][3][4][5][6][7], buổi[1][2][3][4][5][6][7], với[1][2][3][4][5][6][7], bối[1][2][4][5][6][7], búi[1][3][4][5][6][7], vuối[3][5][6][7], mấy[1][2][3], mới[1][2][3], bủi[5][6][7], bỏi[1], bổi[1], vời[1], vỏi[7]
- chữ Nôm form of bói (“to tell fortunes, to divine, to take an augury”)
- chữ Nôm form of bối (“used in bối rối (“to be at a loss; to be confused; bewildered”)”)
- chữ Nôm form of bổi (“(Central Vietnam) dried leaves, tree branches, straws intended to be burned”)
- chữ Nôm form of búi (“tuft”)
- chữ Nôm form of buổi (“session, event, time, period”)
- chữ Nôm form of với (“with; together with; along with”)
