仙 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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See also: 仚

Stroke order
 

仙 (Kangxi radical 9, 人+3, 5 strokes, cangjie input 人山 (OU), four-corner 22270, composition ⿰亻山)

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 92, character 13
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 374
  • Dae Jaweon: page 196, character 3
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 114, character 3
  • Unihan data for U+4ED9
Historical forms of the character 仙

Transcribed ancient scripts

L31826

L31827

L31828

L06560

L06561

L06562

L06563

L06564

L06565

References:

Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation),
which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including:

  • Shuowen Jiezi (small seal),
  • Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions),
  • Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and
  • Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).
Old Chinese
山 *sreːn
疝 *sreːn, *sraːns
邖 *sreːn
汕 *sreːnʔ, *sraːns
訕 *sraːn, *sraːns
仙 *sen
秈 *sen
苮 *sen
屾 *srin

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sen) : semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 山 (OC *sreːn, “mountain”) — a person moving into a mountain to practise becoming immortal.

Originally 僊. The current form is first attested in the clerical script of the Han dynasty.

simp. and trad.
 仙
alternative forms

A relatively late word, perhaps Sino-Tibetan (Schuessler, 2007). Compare Tibetan གཤེན (gshen, “shaman”), as in Tibetan གཤེན་རབ (gshen rab, “Shenrab”), the founder of the Tibetan religion Bon, although this might be a loan from Chinese (ibid.). Starostin sets up Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s[ă]n (“a kind of demon”), comparing it to Tibetan བསེན་མོ (bsen mo, “female devil”) and Jingpho sawn (“malignant female nat”).

Note:

  • siêng1 - Chaozhou;
  • siang1 - Shantou.
  • Dialectal data
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 仙
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		xiān
Middle
Chinese 		‹ sjen ›
Old
Chinese 		/*[s]a[r]/
English immortal (n.)

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 仙
Reading # 1/1
No. 11060
Phonetic
component 		山
Rime
group 		元
Rime
subdivision 		2
Corresponding
MC rime 		仙
Old
Chinese 		/*sen/

仙

  1. (Taoism) xian (an immortal; celestial being)
  2. (figurative) extraordinary person
    詩仙／诗仙  ―  shīxiān  ―  great poet; epithet of Li Bai
  3. (agent affix, chiefly Southern Min, honorific) expert; a title for a person with a specific expertise
    相命仙 [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  siòng-miā-sian [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  fortuneteller
  4. (agent affix, chiefly Southern Min, ironic) person with some specific hobby or addiction
    筊仙 [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  kiáu-sian [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  gambler
  5. a euphemism for the deceased
    仙逝  ―  xiānshì  ―  to pass away
  6. (Southern Min) Classifier for deity, idol, statue, doll. Alternative form of 身 (sian)
    Synonym: 尊 (zūn)
    大仙的王爺公，細仙的王爺囝。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
    大仙的王爷公，细仙的王爷囝。 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]
    Tōa sian--ê ông-iâ kong, sè sian--ê ông-iâ kiáⁿ. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]
    (idiomatic) Idols of Wang Ye's are everywhere. Literally, “The bigger idol is a senior Wang Ye; the smaller idol is a junior Wang Ye.”
  7. (Southern Min) (with negative) whatsoever, any way
    仙講都毋聽／仙讲都毋听 [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  sian kóng to m̄ thiaⁿ [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  won't listen (to you) no matter what you say
  8. a surname

Others:

simp. and trad.
 仙
alternative forms 銑／铣 Min Nan

Borrowed from English cent.

仙

  1. (Cantonese, Southern Min, Malaysian and Singapore Mandarin) cent (Classifier: 個／个 c)
    五仙硬幣／五仙硬币 [Cantonese]  ―  ng5 sin1 ngaang6 bai6 [Jyutping]  ―  five-cent coin
    佢係私生子，佢老豆死嗰陣一個仙都冇分畀佢。 [Cantonese, trad.]
    佢系私生子，佢老豆死嗰阵一个仙都冇分畀佢。 [Cantonese, simp.]
    keoi5 hai6 si1 sang1 zi2, keoi5 lou5 dau6 sei2 go2 zan6 jat1 go3 sin1 dou1 mou5 fan1 bei2 keoi5. [Jyutping]
    He is a son born out of wedlock, so when his dad died, he didn't even inherit one cent.

Dialectal synonyms of 分 (“fen; cent”) [map]

From clipping of English senior.

仙 (Hong Kong Cantonese, university slang)

  1. senior
  2. (of a senior) to berate a junior

仙

(Jōyō kanji)

Compounds

Kanji in this term
仙
せん
Grade: S
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 仙 (MC sjen, literally “immortal”). Compare modern Mandarin reading xiān and Cantonese reading sin1.

仙(せん) • (sen) 

  1. a sage or hermit, an enlightened person, usually immortal and ageless
  2. (mythology) short for 仙人 (sennin): a wizard or mage; an immortal living as a hermit in the mountains
  3. by extension, the region or area where a sennin lives
  4. the supernatural techniques for becoming immortal and ageless
  5. a person of exceptional talent
Kanji in this term
仙
せんと
Grade: S
irregular

Borrowed from English cent.[1][2] The kanji spelling is an example of jukujikun.

For pronunciation and definitions of 仙 – see the following entry.
【セント】
[noun] [1860] cent (various national currencies, 1⁄100 of a unit)
[noun] [1872] saint
(This term, 仙, is an alternative spelling (obsolete) of the above term.)

This word is almost always spelled in katakana as セント.

  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

From Middle Chinese 仙 (MC sjen). Recorded as Middle Korean 션 (syen) (Yale: syen) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource

仙 (eumhun 신선 선 (sinseon seon))

  1. hanja form? of 선 (“a sage or hermit, an enlightened person, usually immortal and ageless”)

Compounds

  • 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [1]

仙: Hán Nôm readings: tiên

仙

  1. xian, Immortal (Taoism)
  2. fairy
  3. celestial