Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

大 (radical 37 大+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 大 (K), four-corner 4003₀/4080₀, composition ⿻一人)

1. Kangxi radical #37, ⼤ ‎(“big”).

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/大

Related characters

• 人 小 尢 文 夭 亦 (other characters derived from a similar figure shape)

References

• KangXi: page 248, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5831
• Dae Jaweon: page 492, character 25
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 520, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5927

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 大
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Ideogram (指事) : a person 人 with arms stretched out as far as possible, implying the meaning of big/great/large. This is in contrast to 小 which represents a person 人 with lowered arms implying small in size.

Compare with 尢, which is a man with bent legs with the meaning of weak.

Compare also 文, which is a man with arms outstretched and a crest or tattoo on his chest denoting culture or language, and to 夭, which is a man with arms outstretched and leaning to side (running), denoting youth.

Etymology

Three pronunciations can be found in Modern Standard Chinese:

1. Modern dà, from Middle Chinese dɑL, from Old Chinese *lˤaːts. The phonological development from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese is irregular. Original sense: "big" (Shijing). Derived senses: "size" (Mozi), "thick" (Zhuangzi), "to respect" (Mengzi), "to respect" (Xunzi), "to extol" (Gongyang Zhuan), "to exaggerate" (Classic of Rites), "arrogant" (Guoyu), "good" (I Ching), "(of time) long" (Erya), "senior" (Shijing).
2. Modern dài, from Middle Chinese dɑiL, from Old Chinese *lˤaːts. This Middle Chinese pronunciation-preserving (i.e. literary) pronunciation occurs only in compounds such as 大夫 (dàifu, “doctor”) and 大王 (dàiwang, “(in operas, old novels) king; ringleader”).
3. Modern tài, from Middle Chinese tʰɑiL, from Old Chinese *l̥ˤaːts. This is the ancient form of 太 (tài, “too, excessively”) and is obsolete in modern languages.

Pronunciation 2), the diphthong reading, is traditionally regarded as the correct one. However, the monophthong reading 1) has been recorded as early as Han Dynasty, and Sui-Tang rhyme books record both. Both readings are reflected in Sino-xenic readings in non-Sinitic languages, although the diphthong readings dominate in compounds. Axel Schüssler postulates that all pronunciations can eventually be traced back to liquid initials, i.e. 1,2) **laːts, 3) **hlaːts.

The three pronunciations are cognate. Within Chinese, they are cognate with 太 (OC *tʰaːds, “too, excessively”), 泰 (OC *tʰaːds, “big”), 誕 (OC *l'aːnʔ, “big, magniloquent, ridiculous”). There are no unambiguous Tibeto-Burman cognates. Proto-Tibeto-Burman *taj ‎(“big”), from which came Written Tibetan མཐེ་བོ ‎(mthe bo, “thumb”), Nung tʰɛ ("big, large, great"), Mikir tʰè, ketʰè ("id."), Burmese တယ် ‎(tai, “very”), is often compared with. There is no final –s in the Tibeto-Burman words, but a –y, which, according to James Matisoff, "indicates emergent quality in stative verbs". Also compare Chinese 多 (OC *ʔl'aːl, “many, much”), 都 (OC *taː, “all”).

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

大

1. big; large; huge

   Antonyms: 小 (xiǎo)

   • 這個太大了！ / 这个太大了！  ―  Zhè ge tài dà le!  ―  This is too big!
2. big; great; deep
3. main; major
   • 他們將車一直開到大門口。 [MSC, trad.]
     他们将车一直开到大门口。 [MSC, simp.]

     Tāmen jiāng chē yīzhí kāi dào dà ménkǒu. [Pinyin]

     They drove right up to the main gate.

   • 他是一家石油公司的大股東。 [MSC, trad.]
     他是一家石油公司的大股东。 [MSC, simp.]

     Tā shì yījiā shíyóu gōngsī de dà gǔdōng. [Pinyin]

     He is a major stockholder in an oil company.

4. loud; heavy
   • 昨天下大雨。  ―  Zuótiān xià dàyǔ.  ―  There was heavy rain yesterday.
5. mature; grown up

   ⇒ 老

   • 你多大了？  ―  Nǐ duō dà le?  ―  How old are you?
   • 她比他大。  ―  Tā bǐ tā dà.  ―  She is older than him.
6. greatly; very much
   • 中美關係已有很大改善。 [MSC, trad.]
     中美关系已有很大改善。 [MSC, simp.]

     Zhōng Měi guānxì yǐ yǒu hěn dà gǎishàn. [Pinyin]

     Relations between China and America have improved greatly.

7. (dialectal) father
8. (dialectal) father's elder or younger brother
9. Short for 大學／大学 (dàxué, “university”). Used only in the abbreviation of the name.

   北大  ―  Běi Dà  ―  Peking University

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

大

1. Only used in 大夫 (dàifu, “doctor”).
2. Only used in 大城 (“Daicheng, Hebei”).
3. Only used in 大王 (dàwáng, “(in operas, old novels) king; ringleader”).

Pronunciation 3

Compounds

Descendants

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: だい (dai), だ (da)
• Kan’on: たい (tai), た (ta)
• Kun: おお (ō), おおきい (大きい, ōkii), おおいに (大いに, ōini)
• Nanori: うふ (ufu), お (o), た (ta), たかし (takashi), とも (tomo), はじめ (hajime), ひろ (hiro), ひろし (hiroshi), ふとし (futoshi), まさ (masa), まさる (masaru), もと (moto), ゆたか (yutaka), わ (wa)

Compounds

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Goon
• (Tokyo) だ​い [dáꜜì] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [da̠i]

Prefix

大 ‎(hiragana だい, romaji dai-)

1. big, large
2. the large part of
3. university

Usage notes

This is often the first half two-character shorthand name of universities, for example 東大 ‎(Tokyo University, “Tōdai”)

Etymology 2

Prefix

大 ‎(hiragana おお, romaji ō-, historical hiragana おほ)

1. big; great

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

大 • ‎(dae, tae)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 대, 태 (revised: dae, tae, McCune-Reischauer: tae, t'ae, Yale: tay, thay)

• Name (hangeul): 크다 (revised: keuda, McCune-Reischauer: k'ŭda, Yale: khuta)

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

Compounds

• 방대 (厖大, bangdae)
• 대음순 (大陰脣, daeeumsun, “labia majora”)
• 적소성대 (積小成大, jeoksoseongdae)
• 전권대사 (全權大使, jeon-gwondaesa)

Mulam

Adjective

大 ‎(lo4)

1. big

Vietnamese

Han character

• Hán Việt: đại, dãy, dảy, thái, đại, đài, đợi

References

• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)