自 (zì): self; oneself

Meanings

1 self; oneself
2 from; since
3 naturally; of course

Characters

自

zì

self; from; naturally

Originally a pictograph of a nose — in Chinese culture, people point to their nose to indicate 'me'.

Examples

要有自信。

Yào yǒu zìxìn.

You should have confidence.

请自我介绍一下。

Qǐng zìwǒ jièshào yíxià.

Please introduce yourself.

自从他走了以后，我很想他。

Zìcóng tā zǒu le yǐhòu, wǒ hěn xiǎng tā.

Since he left, I miss him a lot.

Tips

usage

自 is extremely productive: 自己 (oneself), 自然 (nature/naturally), 自由 (freedom), 自信 (confidence), 自从 (since). The prefix 自- often means 'self-': 自学 (self-study), 自动 (automatic).

Components

pictograph

自 zì

self; from; nose

Pictograph of a nose viewed from the front — the bridge, the nostrils, the rounded tip. Chinese speakers traditionally point to their own nose (not chest) when saying 'me,' so the nose pictograph naturally extended to mean 'self.' The original 'nose' meaning was later rewritten as 鼻, freeing 自 to specialize in 'self, from, since.' Self-radical (Kangxi #132) — atomic, not decomposed further.

Radical

Self Kangxi #132

The 'self' (originally 'nose') radical. The Shuowen explains 自 as a pictograph of a nose, the same root that became 鼻. Low productivity as an indexing radical — 臬, 臭, 臬 are the rare residents — but enormously productive as a free morpheme meaning 'self' and 'from'.