Stroke order

寺 (Kangxi radical 41,寸+3, 6 strokes,cangjie input土木戈 (GDI),four-corner4034₁,composition⿱土寸(GJKV) or⿱士寸(HT))

• Note that in Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese scripts, the top half of the character is 土 (instead of 士 as seen in Traditional Chinese), which is also the historical form found in the Kangxi Dictionary.

• 侍,峙,待,恃,持,洔,時 (时),㭙,歭,特,畤,秲,詩 (诗),䝰,跱,鼭
• 邿,䓁,㫭,等,庤,痔,䦙

• Kangxi Dictionary:page 293, character 33
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7414
• Dae Jaweon: page 581, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 503, character 11
• Unihan data for U+5BFA

Historical forms of the character寺
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled inHan)	Liushutong (compiled inMing)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声,OC*ljɯs): phonetic 𡳿(OC*tjɯ,“to go”) + semantic 又(“hand”) – to grasp, to hold. Phonetic 𡳿 (之), which represents a footprint pointing up, became土 or士 in theclerical script from the late Western Han to the Eastern Han, and semantic又 become寸 in Small Seal Script. The derivative持 (OC*l'ɯ) refers to the original word.

The character was often used in the place of a more specialized form. For example, in theChu Silk Manuscript (see table above) it clearly stood for時 (OC*djɯ, “season”).

(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)

寺

1. (historical)governmentcourt;office(before the Han dynasty)

   大理寺  ― Dàlǐsì  ― Court of Judicature and Revision

2. (Buddhism)temple;monastery

   白馬寺／白马寺  ― Báimǎsì  ― White HorseTemple

   少林寺  ― Shàolínsì  ― ShaolinMonastery

   哲蚌寺  ― Zhébàngsì  ― DrepungMonastery

3. place ofworship;shrine

   清真寺  ― qīngzhēnsì  ―  mosque

   仙鶴寺／仙鹤寺  ― Xiānhèsì  ― CraneMosque

   西敏寺  ― Xīmǐnsì  ―  WestminsterAbbey

4. (obsolete)Original form of持 (chí, “tohold; tograsp”).
5. asurname

Not used for places of worship of Taoism and Chinese folk religion.

• (temple):

寺

1. (obsolete)internalcourtofficial, especially aeunuch

• “寺”, in漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[2],香港中文大學 (theChinese University of Hong Kong),2014–
• 李如龙[Li, Ru-long];刘福铸[Liu, Fu-zhu];吴华英[Wu, Hua-ying];黄国城[Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019), “寺”, in莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min),Xiamen University Press,→ISBN, page164.

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

1. (Buddhism)temple

• Go-on:じ(ji,Jōyō)
• Kan-on:し(shi)
• Kun:てら(tera,寺,Jōyō)

FromOld Japanese. Appears in theNihon Shoki of 720CE,^[1] and in theMan'yōshū, completed some time after 759CE.^[2]

There are various theories regarding the ultimate derivation.

• Some sources^[3][4] derive Japanesetera from an ancestor of MiddleKorean졀(jeol) (likely Baekje). This is from earlier뎔(dyeol,“temple”) and is the nativised reading of찰 (刹,chal, “Buddhist temple”) below, deriving in turn fromMiddle Chinese剎 (MC tsrhaet), shortened from剎多羅 (MC tsrhaet ta la, “Buddhistmonastery,temple orshrine”), borrowed fromSanskritक्षेत्र(kṣetra,“land,area,domain”), fromProto-Indo-Aryan*ṭṣáytram, fromProto-Indo-Iranian*ćšáytram, fromProto-Indo-European*tḱéytrom.
• Other sources^[5] describe Japanesetera as cognate with modernKorean찰 (刹,chal, “temple”), appearing as a component in terms such as선찰 (禪刹,seonchal, “Zen temple”),사찰 (寺刹,sachal, “Buddhist temple”).
• Another derivation^[4][5] is given asPalithera(“elders”) in reference to the monks.

Considering the phonetic development in Korean, the avenues for transmission of Buddhist terms to Japan, and the consistenttemple sense of the Japanese term throughout recorded history, the now-obsoleteKorean뎔(dyeol,“temple”) may be a more likely source thanPalithera(“elders”).

• (Tokyo)てら[tèráꜜ] (Odaka – [2])^[3][6][7]
• (Tokyo)てら[tèrá] (Heiban – [0])^[3]
• IPA^(key): [te̞ɾa̠]

寺(てら)• (tera)  (counter軒)

1. (chiefly Buddhism) atemple
2. (historical, Edo, education)abbreviation of寺(てら)子(こ)屋(や)(terakoya)

• → Ainu:テラカムイ(terá kamuy)

FromMiddle Chinese寺 (MC ziH).

• IPA^(key): [d͡ʑi]

• The pitch accent depends on the suffixed term.

寺(じ)• (-ji) 

1. (chiefly Buddhism) atemple

• “寺”, in漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[3] (in Japanese),The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation,2015–2025

(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Middle Korean readings, if any”)

• (SK Standard/Seoul)IPA^(key):[sʰa̠]
• Phonetic hangul:[사]

KoreanWikisource has texts containing thehanja:

寺

寺 (eumhun절사(jeol sa))

1. hanja form^? of사(“temple”)

• 寺刹(사찰, sachal)

寺:Hán Nôm readings:tự,chùa

1. Buddhist monastery

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