Pictogram (象形) – a war axe. Later, it took the meaning of "soldier" and eventually "officer, intellectual". Partly related to王 since in at least two characters it should represent a ritual axe, perhaps made of jade: in fact, it is related to圭 and金 despite their appearance.
Reminiscent ofAustroasiatic synonyms likeOld Khmersi(“male”) or MK words for "man, male" like *ʔŋsiil, *ensir, *kəsəy on the Malay Peninsula;Schuessler (2007) noted that foreign *-r sometimes left traces in OC initial complex. These relations, if, valid, would keep 士1 "bachelor, man, male" distinct from 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar".
"take or give an office, serve", "servant", "retainer", "officer", "scholar"
Schuessler (2007) noted that one could naturally assume the semantic development "male > man > servant > to serve" in order to posit that 士1 "bachelor, man, male" is the same word as 士2 "servant, retainer, officer, scholar". Yet, the exopassive derivation事 (OC*ʔsrɯs, *zrɯs) "assignment, affair, thing" and Tibeto-Burman counterparts demonstrated no association with "man, maleness"; & "male" hardly derives from "to serve".
Therefore, Schuessler derived these forms from理 (OC*rɯʔ) "envoy, jail official, matchmaker" & proposed ultimateAustroasiatic origins. In terms of phonology, MC *dʐ- normally does not occur with *l- and *ʂ in an ST word-family, apparently confirming a non-ST provenance; however, MC *dʐ- here could go back to OC *s-r- (unlike MC *ʂ-, which is from OC *sr)
Subsequenly, Schuessler posited either relation to Austroasiatic or OC loan into Tibeto-Burman asProto-Tibeto-Burman*ʔ-dzəj(“send on an errant”) (Matisoff, 2003), whenceBurmeseစာ(ca,“thing”) &Tibetanརྫས(rdzas,“thing, matter, object”) (Gong, 1999). Even so, Tibeto-Burman cognates of this etymon and所 (suǒ) are difficult to distinguish.
Wú héngchǎn ér yǒu héngxīn zhě, wéishì wéi néng. Ruò mín, zé wú héngchǎn, yīn wú héngxīn.[Pinyin]
They are onlymen of education (i.e., theshi), who, without a certain livelihood, are able to maintain a fixed heart. As to the people (i.e. lower commoners), if they have not a certain livelihood, it follows that they will not have a fixed heart.
士 is commonly used to render the/s/ sound (not followed by a vowel) in foreign names, e.g.威士忌 (wēishìjì, “whiskey”),巴士 (bāshì, “bus”), which is from Cantonese usage.
