Is there any connection between the choice of characters for 九 and 丸?

Question

I just learned the character 丸 and naturally noticed that it is similar to 九 with the additional 点.

Is there any interesting connection between these two characters or is it just a random coincidence ?

dROOOze · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-20T02:08:49.507

「九」 and 「丸」 are not related. As @user3306356 points out, 「丸」 is probably related to 「夗」.

商朝甲骨文菁2.1 合集6057西周金文作冊夨令簋集成4300戰國・晉金文東周左壺集成9640小篆九部說文解字今楷書 　

「九」 depicts an arm showing the hand, a bent wrist, and elbow, indicating the original meaning elbow. This word is now written as 「肘」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*t-[k]<r>uʔ/).

The meaning nine (/*[k]uʔ/) for 「九」 is a phonetic loan.

「丸」 is derived from 「夗」.

「夗」 (/*[ʔ]o[r]ʔ/) was originally a picture of an animal or person curled up in a foetal position, extended to mean twisting and turning in bed and then crooked, winding (now written 「宛」).

「夗」 or its derivatives later started being used for different senses. 「丸」 (/*[ɢ]ʷˤar/) was corrupted from 「夗」 to specifically represent the sense curl up and roll > ball, round object.

The glyph evolution and corruption process is as follows:

商朝甲骨文 1799 殷虛文字乙楷書 　

西周金文能匋尊集成5984隸定文字 　

西周金文仲義父鼎集成2542隸定文字 　

小篆丸部說文解字

晉朝篆刻晉烏丸率善篆刻大字典

今楷書 　

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
漢語多功能字庫
國學大師
- 郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
- 中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》
中國哲學書電子化計劃
- 宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 15 '20 at 14:49

4

「丸」has more to do with「夗」than it does with「九」.

「丸」is a derivative character of「夗」.

answered Apr 15 '20 at 14:49

Mou某

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2

These questions are difficult to demonstrate the answer to without pictures, aren't they :p – dROOOze Apr 15 '20 at 14:52
4

@dROOOze I'm sure you could write up a much better answer than this one. – Mou某 Apr 15 '20 at 15:11

Is there any connection between the choice of characters for 九 and 丸?

2 Answers2