鏡

Han character

鏡 (Kangxi radical 167, 金+11, 19 strokes, cangjie input 金卜廿山 (CYTU), four-corner 8011₆, composition ⿰釒竟)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1320, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 40812
• Dae Jaweon: page 1820, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4250, character 10
• Unihan data for U+93E1

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 鏡, Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) ...

Historical forms of the character 鏡
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *kraŋs): semantic 金 (“metal”) + phonetic 竟 (OC *kraŋs).

Etymology

Probably cognate with 景 (OC *kraŋʔ, “bright”), 影 (OC *qraŋʔ, “shadow”) (Wang, 1982; Schuessler, 2007; Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Gong (2019) identifies the unknown preinitial *C in the reconstruction *C.qraŋʔ-s by Baxter and Sagart (2014) with *s based on evidence from Old Vietnamese, and further posits that it is an instrumental noun derived by prefixation of *s- to the verb 映 (OC *qraŋs, “to reflect”), which is itself a denominal derived from 影 (OC *qraŋʔ, “shadow; image”); however, Gong acknowledges that his emendation of *C.qraŋʔ-s to *s.qraŋʔ-s is incompatible with Baxter & Sagart's 2014 system, as *s.qraŋʔ-s would have become Middle Chinese *tsrjaeŋH instead of *kjaeŋH (ibid.).

Alternatively, it may be derived from 亮 (OC *raŋs, “to shine”) with the nominalising *k- prefix (Schuessler, 2007; apud Baxter, p.c.).

STEDT compares 鏡, 景 and 亮, among others, to Proto-Kuki-Chin *klaaŋ-I, *klaan-II (“to shine; light; bright”).

This word is relatively late and is perhaps re-etymologized from the nearly identical earlier word 監 (OC *kraːms), 鑑 (OC *kraːms, “mirror”) (Schuessler, 2007), which Wang (1982) treats as cognate. Gong (2019) considers 鏡 to be an unrelated neologism replacing 鑑.

Pronunciation

Definitions

鏡

1. (now in compounds or dialectal) mirror; reflecting glass (Classifier: 塊／块 c)

   鏡子／镜子  ―  jìngzi  ―  mirror

   銅鏡／铜镜  ―  tóngjìng  ―  bronze mirror

   穿衣鏡／穿衣镜  ―  chuānyījìng  ―  dressing mirror

2. (physics, in compounds) lens; -scope

   稜鏡／棱镜  ―  léngjìng  ―  prism

   凸透鏡／凸透镜  ―  tūtòujìng  ―  convex lens

3. (in compounds) spectacles; glasses

   太陽鏡／太阳镜  ―  tàiyángjìng  ―  sunglasses

   護目鏡／护目镜  ―  hùmùjìng  ―  goggles

4. (Cantonese) Short for 鏡頭／镜头 (jìngtóu, “camera lens”). (Classifier: 支 c)
5. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to mirror; to reflect
6. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to perceive; to observe clearly
7. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to use for reference; to draw lessons from
8. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) clear
9. a surname

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• → Vietnamese: gương
• → Zhuang: gingq

References

• “鏡”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–