祈 (qí): to pray

Meanings

1 to pray
2 to implore
3 to beseech

Characters

祈

qí

to pray / to implore (single character)

Examples

她每晚都祈求平安和健康。

Tā měiwǎn dōu qíqiú píng'ān hé jiànkāng.

She prays every evening for peace and health.

人们向神明祈愿，希望来年风调雨顺。

Rénmen xiàng shénmíng qíyuàn, xīwàng láinián fēngtiáoyǔshùn.

People pray to the gods, wishing for favorable weather in the coming year.

Tips

usage

祈 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese; it appears in compounds: 祈祷 (qídǎo, to pray), 祈求 (qíqiú, to pray for), 祈福 (qífú, to pray for blessings), 祈愿 (qíyuàn, to make a wish/prayer).

Components

radical

礻 shì

spirit; altar (radical form)

Left altar/spirit radical (the side-form of 示) — the indexing radical. Pictures an altar table for ritual offerings. Anchors 祈 firmly in the religion/blessing family with 神 spirit, 祝 to bless, 福 fortune, 祭 to sacrifice. Whenever a Chinese word names a ritual or appeal to the divine, 礻 is usually anchoring the left.

phonetic

斤 jīn

axe; catty (here phonetic)

Right 斤 supplies the sound, drifting from jīn to qí along the j-/q- palatalisation series. The 'axe' sense plays no part in the meaning; pure sound peg. Same phonetic powers 近 near, 听 to listen (traditional 聽), 折 to break. Prayer here is the verbal appeal to spirits at the altar, sound-tagged by 斤.