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Definition 2024

災

災

See also: 灾 and 烖

Translingual

Han character

災 (radical 86 火+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 女女火 (VVF), four-corner 22809, composition ⿱巛火)

References

  • KangXi: page 666, character 18
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 18879
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1075, character 23
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2190, character 6
  • Unihan data for U+707D

Chinese

trad. 災
simp. 灾

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (災) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
灾 *ʔsɯː
災 *ʔslɯː

Pronunciation

  • Dialectal data▼
Variety Location 災
Mandarin Beijing /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Harbin /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Tianjin /t͡sai²¹/
Jinan /t͡sɛ²¹³/
Qingdao /t͡sɛ²¹³/
Zhengzhou /t͡sai²⁴/
Xi'an /t͡sai²¹/
Xining /t͡sɛ⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /t͡sɛ⁴⁴/
Lanzhou /t͡sɛ³¹/
Ürümqi /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Wuhan /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Chengdu /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Guiyang /t͡sai⁵⁵/
Kunming /t͡sæ⁴⁴/
Nanjing /t͡sae³¹/
Hefei /t͡se̞²¹/
Jin Taiyuan /t͡sai¹¹/
Pingyao /t͡sæ¹³/
Hohhot /t͡sɛ³¹/
Wu Shanghai /t͡se⁵³/
Suzhou /t͡se̞⁵⁵/
Hangzhou /t͡se̞³³/
Wenzhou /t͡se³³/
Hui Shexian /t͡sɛ³¹/
Tunxi /t͡sə¹¹/
Xiang Changsha /t͡sai³³/
Xiangtan /t͡sai³³/
Gan Nanchang /t͡sai⁴²/
Hakka Meixian /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Taoyuan /t͡sɑi²⁴/
Cantonese Guangzhou /t͡sɔi⁵³/
Nanning /t͡sɔi⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /t͡sɔi⁵⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /t͡sai⁵⁵/
/t͡se⁵⁵/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /t͡sai⁴⁴/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /t͡suɛ⁵⁴/
Shantou (Min Nan) /t͡sai³³/
Haikou (Min Nan) /t͡sai²³/
Rime
Character 災
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 精 (13)
Final (韻) 咍 (41)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) I
Fanqie 祖才切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang		 /t͡sʌi/
Pan
Wuyun		 /t͡səi/
Shao
Rongfen		 /t͡sɒi/
Edwin
Pulleyblank		 /t͡səj/
Li
Rong		 /t͡sᴀi/
Wang
Li		 /t͡sɒi/
Bernard
Karlgren		 /t͡sɑ̆i/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex		 zāi
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 災
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)		 zāi
Middle
Chinese		 ‹ tsoj ›
Old
Chinese		 /*[ts]ˤə/
English calamity

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 災
Reading # 1/1
No. 16487
Phonetic
component		 災
Rime
group		 之
Rime
subdivision		 0
Corresponding
MC rime		 烖
Old
Chinese		 /*ʔslɯː/
Notes 烖籀文

Definitions

災

  1. calamity; disaster; catastrophe
  2. stricken; disaster-affected; disaster-afflicted

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

災

(grade 5 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
災
さい
Grade: 5
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 災 ‎(tsoj, “calamity”).

Pronunciation

Noun

災 ‎(hiragana さい, romaji sai)

  1. an act of God, a disaster, a calamity
Usage notes

Seldom used on its own. Most often used in compounds.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
災
わざわい
Grade: 5
kun'yomi

/wazapapi/ → /wazaɸaɸi/ → /wazawahi/ → /wazawai/

From Old Japanese. Originally a compound of 業 ‎(waza, “deed, doings”), in reference to the doings of the 神 ‎(kami, “gods, spirits”) + 這い ‎(hai, “spreading widely”, literally “crawling”).[1] Compare the etymology of 幸 (sakiwai, “good fortune”). Compare also the connotations of the English term act of God in reference to disasters.

Often spelled 災い with the trailing okurigana い to make the reading more explicit.

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

Noun

災 ‎(hiragana わざわい, romaji wazawai, historical hiragana わざはひ)

  1. an act of God, a disaster, a calamity
Idioms

References

  1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

Korean

Hanja

災 • ‎(jae) (hangeul 재, revised jae, McCune-Reischauer chae, Yale cay)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

災 (tai)

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

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