丝 (sī): silk; thread; fiber

Measure Word

一根丝 gēn

Meanings

1 silk; thread; fiber
2 a tiny amount; a trace

Characters

丝

si

silk; thread; a trace

Examples

蜘蛛吐出了一根丝。

Zhīzhū tǔ chū le yì gēn sī.

The spider spun out a thread of silk.

她脸上露出了一丝微笑。

Tā liǎnshàng lùchū le yìsī wēixiào.

A trace of a smile appeared on her face.

中国是丝的故乡。

Zhōngguó shì sī de gùxiāng.

China is the homeland of silk.

Tips

culture

On Chinese internet, 屌丝 (diǎosī) became one of the most viral slang terms of the 2010s — a self-deprecating label for ordinary young men with no money or status, roughly 'loser.' Despite its crude origin, millions proudly adopted the label as anti-elitist humor.

history

丝 is the origin of the English word 'silk,' borrowed through Greek and Latin from Chinese. The Silk Road (丝绸之路) was named after China's most famous export.

Components

radical

一 yī

one; horizontal baseline

Bottom horizontal is the 一 radical and is the entry's filing point in xinhua. It is the loom-bar from which the two silk threads above hang together, tying the simplified form to the Kangxi 一 radical even though traditional 絲 was filed under 糸.

ideograph

丝 sī

twin silk threads (upper fused body)

Top four strokes function as a fused thread-pair silhouette hanging above the unifying baseline below; they no longer break down to standalone CJK pieces. Historically the simplified residue of traditional 絲's twin 糸 silk-skeins, collapsed during the 1956 reform into this stylized stand-in.