伯 (bó) · uncle (father's elder brother)

Meanings

1 uncle (father's elder brother)
2 earl; count
3 senior; elder

Characters

伯

bó

elder uncle; earl

Examples

HSK 1

大伯对我很好。

Dàbó duì wǒ hěn hǎo.

My father's elder brother is very good to me.

HSK 5

他是一位伯爵。

Tā shì yī wèi bójué.

He is an earl.

Tips

usage

伯 specifically refers to one's father's elder brother (大伯). The father's younger brother is 叔. This distinction matters in Chinese kinship terms.

register

There is a colloquial reading bǎi, found in the spoken kinship word 大伯子 (a woman's husband's elder brother). Note the contrast: 大伯 (with bó) is the father's elder brother, while 大伯子 (with bǎi) is the brother-in-law. Everywhere else the character is read bó.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (left-side radical)

Left person radical, two strokes, the compressed standing-side form of 人. Anchors 伯 in the family-and-rank vocabulary: most 亻 radical chars name a kind of person, such as 你 (you), 他 (he), 仆 (servant), 伴 (companion). Tells the reader 伯 is a person, specifically a senior family member or noble title.

phonetic

白 bái

white; clear (phonetic)

Right phonetic 白 supplies the sound (bái drifted to bó, a regular shortening). It pictures a thumbnail or grain of rice, then came to mean pale or plain. It adds a faint flavour: a white-haired one is what 伯 traditionally meant, the eldest paternal uncle, white-haired with age. Family: 拍, 怕, 泊, 柏, 百.