In Mandarin Chinese, 工 (Pinyin: gōng 🔊) has a variety of meanings related to work. Apart from “work” itself, it could stand for “worker”, “working class”, “working day”, “industry”, “skill” or “project”.
According to Wiktionary, 工 is a pictogram of “a bladed tool”. What tool? Many historical forms of this character remind me of a spade or a shovel. Or maybe of an axe head — cf. 王 (which is like 工 with an extra stroke) and discussion therein. On the other hand, Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 工 is
A depiction of a long hollow tube used as a tool both to pierce and to connect → work; construct (← work/construct using connecting pipes/tubes) → artisan; specialist; skillful.
Many compounds of 工 include
- 工 + 人 = 工人 (gōngrén 🔊): worker, labourer
- 人 + 工 = 人工 (réngōng 🔊): man-made, artificial
- 木 + 工 = 木工 (mùgōng): woodwork, carpentry; woodworker, carpenter
- 小 + 工 = 小工 (xiǎogōng): unskilled worker
- 大 + 工 = 大工 (dàgōng): (literary) skilled worker; carpenter
- 天 + 工 = 天工 (tiāngōng): (literary) work of nature
More photos related to beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.
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