伎 (jì) · artistry; talent; skill

Meanings

1 artistry; talent; skill
2 (in ancient times) female entertainer

Characters

伎

jì

skill; trick; female entertainer

Examples

HSK 5

别被他的伎俩骗了。

Bié bèi tā de jìliǎng piàn le.

Don't be fooled by his tricks.

HSK 7-9

他又在耍他的故伎了。

Tā yòu zài shuǎ tā de gùjì le.

He's playing his old tricks again.

Tips

usage

伎 almost always appears in the compound 伎俩 (tricks/schemes) or 故伎 (old tricks). It is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. The variant 技 is sometimes used interchangeably in 技俩.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left person radical - the side form of 人, a standing figure compressed to two strokes. Indexes 伎 in the social-actor family alongside 仙, 优, 俳, 倡 - characters that name people defined by an occupation or role. Here it frames the meaning 'performer, skilled hand.'

phonetic

支 zhī

branch; support

Right 支 supplies the sound zhī → jì through a regular palatalization shift. The 'branch / skilled hand' meaning of 支 also bleeds in faintly - a 伎 is someone whose hands branch off into many trained skills. Same phonetic shows up in 妓, 技, 歧.