茄

茄 U+8304, 茄 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8304 ← 范 [U+8303] CJK Unified Ideographs 茅 → [U+8305]

茄 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+5, 9 strokes in traditional Chinese and Korean, 8 strokes in mainland China and Japanese, cangjie input 廿大尸口 (TKSR), four-corner 4446₀, composition ⿱艹加)

• 𠸏 𣖚 𨔽 𡲢 𫅘

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1026, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30835
• Dae Jaweon: page 1485, character 12
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3198, character 3
• Unihan data for U+8304

trad.		茄
simp. #		茄

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *ɡa, *ɡal, *kraːl): semantic 艹 (“grass; plant”) + phonetic 加 (OC *kraːl).

Attested very rarely and late, earliest in the 59 BCE "Slave's Contract" (《僮約》) by Wang Bao (王褒) (Wang et al., 2008):^[1]

• 二月春分，……別茄披蔥。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]

  ---

  二月春分，……别茄披葱。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

  From: 59 BCE,《僮約》 ("Slave's Contract") by 王褒 (Wang Bao); English translation by Wang et al. (2008)^[1]

  Èryuè chūnfēn,...... Bié qié pī cōng. [Pinyin]

  In the second month of the year, the Spring Equinox  […]  separate and transplant seedlings of eggplant and scallion.

Alves (2022) relates this to Proto-Vietic *gaː (whence Vietnamese cà), which he considers an early Chinese loanword.^[2]

茄

1. (now in compounds or dialectal) eggplant; aubergine

   茄子  ―  qiézi  ―  eggplant

   茄泥  ―  qiéní  ―  mushed eggplant

   番茄  ―  fānqié  ―  tomato (literally, “foreign eggplant”)

   • 盛冬育荀，舊菜增伽（茄）。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     盛冬育荀，旧菜增伽（茄）。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Western Han dynasty, Yang Xiong (attributed),《蜀都賦》; English translation by Knechtges (2022)^[3]

     Shèng dōng yù xún, jiù cài zēng （ qié ） . [Pinyin]

     In the peak of winter bamboo shoots grow here. Among the old vegetables there is also eggplant.

2. (Cantonese) short for 番茄 (faan¹ ke^4-2, “tomato”)

   車厘茄／车厘茄 [Cantonese]  ―  ce¹ lei⁴ ke^4-2 [Jyutping]  ―  cherry tomato

   茄蛋治 [Cantonese]  ―  ke^4-2 daan^6-2 zi⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  tomato and egg sandwich

• → Amis: kiyo
• → Kavalan: kiu
• → Sakizaya: kiyu
• → Proto-Southwestern Tai: *kʰɯəᴬ
  • ⇒ Lao: ຫມາກເຂືອ (māk khư̄a)
  • ⇒ Shan: မၢၵ်ႇၶိူဝ် (màak khǒe)
  • ⇒ Thai: มะเขือ (má-kʉ̌ʉa)
• → Zhuang: gwz
• →? Proto-Vietic: *gaː^[2]
  • ⇒ Vietnamese: cà

茄

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) lotus stalk

   • 蔕倒茄於藻井，披紅葩之狎獵。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     蒂倒茄于藻井，披红葩之狎猎。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng, 《西京賦》; English translation by Knechtges (1982)^[1]

     Dì dǎo jiā yú zǎojǐng, pī hóng pā zhī xiáliè. [Pinyin]

     Rooted inverted lotus stalks on the figured ceiling, [w]hich bloomed with red flowers joined one to another.

2. an ancient state in modern Anhui

   • 楚子使薳射城州屈，復茄人焉，城丘皇，遷訾人焉。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     楚子使薳射城州屈，复茄人焉，城丘皇，迁訾人焉。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Commentary of Zuo, c. 4^th century BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Chǔ zǐ shǐ Wěi Shè chéng Zhōuqū, fù Jiā rén yān, chéng Qiūhuáng, qiān Zǐ rén yān. [Pinyin]

     The viscount of Chu made Wei She wall Zhouqu, and bring back the people of Jia to it, and wall Qiuhuang, and remove the people of Zi to it.

trad.		茄
simp. #		茄
alternative forms		𡲢 K

Origin uncertain.

Compare

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kləj (“excrement”): Chinese 屎 (OC *hliʔ), Tibetan ལྕི་བ (lci ba), Burmese ချေး (hkye:)
• Proto-Kra-Dai *taqiː C (“excrement”): Zhuang haex, Thai ขี้ (kîi), Lao ຂີ້ (khī), Southern Kam geex, Sui ggeex
• Proto-Austronesian *Caqi (“excrement”): Paiwan tsaqi, Malay tahi, Tagalog tae, Malagasy tay
• Proto-Hmong-Mien *N-KəjX (“excrement”): White Hmong quav, Iu Mien nqaiv.

Bauer (1996:1824) did not consider this to be a loan from Tai and pointed out that khV ("excrement") is quite widespread in Cantonese 茄, Tai (e.g. Thai ขี้ (kîi)) and Tibeto-Burman (e.g. Zaiwa kʰji²¹, Burmese ချေး (hkye:) and Lashi kʰjei⁵⁵) in focusing on modern lexical forms rather than protoforms. Paul Benedict criticized that the lexical forms Bauer had pulled together as the "same" word were really just "looklike" in Bauer (1996:1836). Bauer rebutted that it is highly unlikely that the phenomenon of simple coincidence explains the occurrence of so many phonosemantically similar (and identical) forms in so many different languages in Bauer (1996:1836).

茄

1. (Cantonese, colloquial) poop (Classifier: 篤／笃 c)

   屙茄 [Cantonese]  ―  o¹ ke¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to poop

trad.		茄
simp. #		茄

茄

1. (Cantonese) Used in transcription.

• “茄”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

1. eggplant

• On (unclassified): か (ka)
• Kun: なす (nasu, 茄)

• “^▲茄”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[2] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

茄 (eum 가 (ga))

1. eggplant

茄: Hán Việt readings: gia^[1][2][3]
茄: Nôm readings: cà^[1][2][4][5], nhà^[1][4][5], già^[1][3], rà^[4]

1. chữ Nôm form of cà
   1. Any plant in the family Solanaceae except potato and chili peppers
   2. used in cà cuống (“giant water bug”)
2. chữ Nôm form of nhà (“house; home; dwelling”)
3. chữ Nôm form of rà (“used in rườm rà (“lush”)”)