深

深 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+8, 11 strokes, cangjie input 水月金木 (EBCD), four-corner 3719₄, composition ⿰氵罙)

• 𠽉, 𪮨, 𩴙, 𪒗, 𡪜, 𢊖, 𦸂, 𬔒

• KangXi: page 632, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17687
• Dae Jaweon: page 1034, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1662, character 10
• Unihan data for U+6DF1

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *hljum, *hljums) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 𥥍 ().

Unger (1995) that 深 (shēn) had Old Chinese initial *n- because of 淰 (shěn)'s phonetic component 念 (niàn).

Schuessler (2007) reconstructs 深 (OC *nhəm) & proposes relations to Mizo hniam (“to be low, to sink into (land)”), Burmese နိမ့်သေ (nim.se, “low”), Tangkhul Naga [script needed] (kʰənim, “to be humble”), Tibetan ནེམས་ (nems, “sink a little, give way”), which Schuessler traces to Proto-Tibeto-Burman *nem (“low”), which STEDT in turn derives from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-n(i/u)(ː)p/m ~ *r/s-nyap/m (“pinch, squeeze; press, oppress; submerge, sink into, west, low, soft”). If so, 深 (OC *nhəm) is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan.

Schuessler also notices 深 (OC *nhəm)'s similarity to 沉 (OC *d-ləm), which he considers to be an areal etymon.

Possibly cognate with 探 (tàn) and 揇 (nǎn) (however, see there).

深 (OC *nhəms), "depth" (in Rites of Zhou) & whence MC ɕiɪm^H, is nominal derivation with suffix *-s (> departing tone).

淰 (OC *nhəmʔ), "be startled and flee (of fish); i.e. to sink into the deep" (in Liji) & whence Mandarin shěn, is endoactive derivative with *-ʔ (> rising tone).

深

1. (of distance) deep

   Antonym: 淺／浅 (qiǎn)

2. depth; deepness

   • 凡輻，量其鑿深以為輻廣。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     凡辐，量其凿深以为辐广。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Rites of Zhou, circa 3^rd century BCE

     Fán fú, liàng qí záo shēn yǐwéi fú guǎng. [Pinyin]

     For the spokes, the depth of the stud hole in the hub equals the width of the spokes.

3. (of relationships, etc.) deep; profound
4. (of difficulty) great; profound; obtuse; obscure

   呢一題好深。／呢一题好深。 [Cantonese]  ―  ni¹ jat¹ tai⁴ hou² sam¹. [Jyutping]  ―  This question is really hard to solve.

   本書太深喇，我讀極都唔明。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   本书太深喇，我读极都唔明。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   bun² syu¹ taai³ sam¹ laa³, ngo⁵ duk⁶ gik⁶ dou¹ m⁴ ming⁴. [Jyutping]

   This book is too hard; I still can't get it after reading it many times.

5. (of time) long
6. (of colors) deep; dark

   Synonym: 濃／浓 (nóng)

   Antonyms: 淺／浅 (qiǎn), 淡 (dàn)

7. very; extremely

   Synonym: 非常 (fēicháng)

• “深”, 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–

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. deep, close, thick, profound

• Go-on: しん (shin, Jōyō)^{←しん (sin, historical)←しむ (simu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: しん (shin, Jōyō)^{←しん (sin, historical)←しむ (simu, ancient)}
• Kun: ふかい (fukai, 深い, Jōyō); ふかめる (fukameru, 深める, Jōyō); ふかまる (fukamaru, 深まる, Jōyō); ふける (fukeru, 深ける)
• Nanori: み (mi)

• 深(ふか)い (fukai): deep
• 深呼吸(しんこきゅう) (shinkokyū): deep breath

深 (eumhun 깊을 심 (gipeul sim))

1. Hanja form^? of 심 (“deep”).

• 심화 (深化, simhwa, “deepening”)
• 심도 (深度, simdo, “depth”)

深: Hán Nôm readings: thâm, thăm, thum, thẫm

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.