In Mandarin Chinese, 白 (Pinyin: bái 🔊) means “white”, “clear”, “pure”, “bright” and a number of other meanings which at some point probably were related to colour white: “spoken language”, “free of charge”, “in vain” or “funeral”.
Does it look and sound familiar? This is because we’ve already came across 百 (bǎi), “hundred”. You may also recall that the shape of 百 is a combination of 一 and 白.
While 白 looks like a modification of 日, “sun” or “day”, Uncle Hanzi links 白 with the moon. However, Wiktionary says its original meaning was “acorn”:
The character acquired its current meaning of white from the color of the acorn’s flesh. The original meaning has been lost.
More photos related to acorns, colour white and sea glass @ Shutterstock.
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