Definitions
(particle)
his; her; its; their
(particle)
that; such
Etymology
Pictograph of a basket, now written as 箕. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
About
The character "其" began as a pictographic symbol for a winnowing basket, a concrete object reflected in its early structural composition featuring elements suggestive of a container and a stand. This original sense was gradually supplanted by its persistent application as a phonetic loan character for grammatical purposes, specifically functioning as a third-person possessive pronoun or an anaphoric particle meaning "his", "her", "its", or "their". To resolve the resulting ambiguity, the bamboo radical was later affixed to form the distinct character "箕", which specifically denotes the basket, while "其" remained dedicated to its abstract grammatical roles. The modern form of "其", though stylistically streamlined, still structurally echoes its foundational pictographic origins, and this semantic journey from a noun representing a physical tool to a essential grammatical component demonstrates a common pathway of functional adaptation within the writing system.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我有其他事情。
其中一本书很有趣。
其实我不喜欢咖啡。
我们讨论其可能性。
他解释了其原因。
在众多选择中，其优点明显。
公司正在评估其市场策略。
科学家研究了其对于环境的影响。