绅 (shēn): gentry

Meanings

1 gentry
2 gentleman's sash
3 landed gentry

Characters

绅

shēn

gentry; gentleman's sash

Examples

他是当地有名的乡绅。

Tā shì dāngdì yǒumíng de xiāng shēn.

He is a well-known local gentry figure.

旧时绅士以腰间的绅为礼服标志。

Jiùshí shēnshì yǐ yāo jiān de shēn wéi lǐfú biāozhì.

In former times, gentlemen used the sash around the waist as a mark of formal dress.

Tips

usage

绅 rarely appears alone in modern Chinese. It is most commonly seen in compounds like 绅士 (gentleman) and 乡绅 (local gentry). Classically it referred to the wide sash worn by officials that distinguished them from commoners.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk (radical form of 糸)

Left silk radical, side form of 糸 — twisted threads compressed to three strokes. Indexes 绅 in the fabric family with 纸, 织, 绣. A 绅 was originally the wide silk sash an official tied around his waist with the ends hanging down: cloth marks the meaning.

phonetic

申 shēn

extend; state

Right 申 supplies the sound shēn exactly. It also lends a semantic echo: 申 means 'to extend, stretch out,' which fits the dangling tails of the gentleman's sash. From sash, the meaning extended to the gentry who wore it — hence 绅士.