怎

Meanings

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声): phonetic 乍 (OC *zraːɡs) + semantic 心 (“heart”). First attested in the word 怎生 [10th c.] (Yuan et al., 1996). Contraction of 作 (MC tsak) + some variant of 物 (MC mjut, “thing; what”), literally “to do what” (Norman, 1988). This is evidenced in forms found in the Tang and Song dynasties (Yuan et al., 1996): 作勿生 (MC tsak mjut sraeng) [8th c.], 作沒生 (MC tsak mwot sraeng) [8th c.], 作摩 (MC tsak ma) [10th c.], 作麼 (MC tsak maX) [10th c.].

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Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

Example sentences

• 那又怎樣?

  Then what?

• 天氣怎樣？

  How is the weather?

• 你怎麼樣？

  How about you?

• 我怎麼知道？

  How should I know?

• 食物怎麼樣？

  How was the food?

• 我怎麼知道?

  How should I know?

Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR

More examples & usage (AI)

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Related words