竊

竊 (Kangxi radical 116, 穴+17, 22 strokes, cangjie input 十金竹木月 (JCHDB), four-corner 3092₇, composition ⿱穴⿰釆⿳⺊𠔿禸)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 870, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25713
• Dae Jaweon: page 1299, character 10
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2747, character 7
• Unihan data for U+7ACA

Historical forms of the character 竊
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

The current form likely derives from a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sʰleːd) : semantic 宀 + phonetic 䊪／𥸯 (OC *m·raːds, *m·rads, *m·raːd), as attested in the Western Han period. 宀 is later replaced with 穴, and 萬 corrupts into 廿 and 禼. Based on the corrupted form, Shuowen erroneously interprets this character as a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sʰleːd) : semantic 穴 (“cave; hole”) + semantic 米 (“rice”) + phonetic 廿 (OC *zid) + phonetic 禼 (OC *sed). In the current form, 廿 is omitted and 米 is replaced with 釆.

竊

1. to steal
2. thief
3. to acquire illegitimately; to usurp
4. secretly; stealthily
5. (literary, humble) personally

   竊以為……／窃以为……  ―  qiè yǐwèi......  ―  I personally think that...

   • 臣竊計，君宮中積珍寶，狗馬實外廄，美人充下陳。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     臣窃计，君宫中积珍宝，狗马实外厩，美人充下陈。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Zhanguo Ce, circa 5^th – 3^rd centuries BCE

     Chén qiè jì, jūn gōng zhōng jī zhēn bǎo, gǒu mǎ shí wài jiù, měirén chōng xiàzhèn. [Pinyin]

     I took the liberty to make an assessment and saw that the palace of our lord was piled full of precious things and treasures, with dogs and horses filling the outside stable and beautiful women filling the front hall.

• (to steal):

• “竊”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 窃)

1. to steal (“nusumu” reading)
2. secret; hushed, quietly (“hisoka” reading)

• Go-on: せち (sechi)
• Kan-on: せつ (setsu)
• Kun: ぬすむ (nusumu, 竊む); ひそか (hisoka, 竊か)

From Middle Chinese 竊 (MC tshet).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕʌ̹ɭ]
• Phonetic hangul: [절]

Wikisource 竊 (eumhun 훔칠 절 (humchil jeol))

1. Hanja form^? of 절 (“to steal”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

竊: Hán Nôm readings: thiết

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.