Friday, 24 March 2017

七 | qī

In Mandarin Chinese, 七 (Pinyin: qī 🔊) means “seven”. It is considered a lucky number, maybe because it is pronounced similarly to 气 (qì), “life essence”.

Many historical forms of this character looked like 十, which currently represents “ten”. If you got accustomed to write your 7 with a line through the middle, then you’ll have no problem remembering 七: it’s just 7 upside down.

The Chinese hand sign for “seven” is a hand with the fingertips of the thumb and first two fingers touching:

There is another hanzi with the same meaning, 柒, which is mainly used for financial purposes. It is composed of the very same 七 as well as of now-familiar 氵, a radical form of 水 (shuǐ), and 木 (mù).

More photos related to numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

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