Definitions
(particle)
possessive particle (literary equivalent of 的)
(pronoun)
him; her; it
Etymology
Pictograph of a foot (止) going out of an area. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
About
The character "之" finds its origin in an early pictographic representation of a foot moving away from a line, initially conveying the literal sense of departure or going forth. From this concrete verbal meaning, it gradually transitioned into a fundamental grammatical particle within Classical Chinese, where it primarily functioned to indicate possession, connect modifiers with their nouns, or serve as a demonstrative pronoun. Structurally, the character evolved from a more depictive form into its current stylized configuration of three strokes, a form that has remained consistent through the centuries. This semantic journey from a word denoting physical movement to an abstract relational marker reflects the adaptive nature of written Chinese in grammaticalization.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我们之间有很多共同点。
他在公司之中很有名。
放学之后，我们去打球。
吃饭之前要洗手。
北京是中国的大城市之一。
两国之间的合作非常重要。
此项决定之影响深远。
他对这个问题的理解之深刻令人惊讶。