賊

賊 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+6, 13 strokes, cangjie input 月金戈十 (BCIJ), four-corner 6385₀, composition ⿰貝戎)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1208, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36759
• Dae Jaweon: page 1672, character 10
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3637, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8CCA

Historical forms of the character 賊
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *zɯːɡ) : phonetic 則 (OC *ʔsɯːɡ) + semantic 戈 (“weapon”).

This was later reinterpreted as a compound of 貝 (“money”) and 戎 (“weapon”) to produce the modern form.

Possibly Sino-Tibetan; compare Tibetan ཇག (jag, “robbery”) (Coblin, 1986). Schuessler (2007) points out that a palatalized consonant in Tibetan does not usually correspond to an unpalatalized one in Chinese; instead, he compares it to Khmer ឆក់ (chɑk, “to snatch; to steal”).

Possibly cognate with 災 (OC *ʔslɯː, “natural disaster”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Based on evidence from early loans from Chinese, e.g. Lakkia kjak⁸ (“bandit”) and Rục kəcʌ́ːk (“bandit”), Baxter and Sagart (2014) reconstructs the Old Chinese with a *k preinitial.

賊

1. ^† to damage; to corrupt; to ruin; to destroy
2. ^† to harm; to injure
3. ^† to slander
4. ^† to murder

   • 宣子驟諫，公患之，使鉏麑賊之。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     宣子骤谏，公患之，使𬬺麑贼之。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Commentary of Zuo, c. 4^th century BCE

     Xuānzǐ zhòu jiàn, Gōng huàn zhī, shǐ Chú Ní zéi zhī. [Pinyin]

     Lord Xuan remonstrated with the Duke again and again. The Duke, troubled by his behaviour, sent Chu (or "Zhu") Ni to murder him.

5. ^† murderer
6. ^† harm; disaster
7. thief; bandit; robber (Classifier: 個／个 m c)

   琴日有賊入咗屋，偷走咗我部電腦。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   琴日有贼入咗屋，偷走咗我部电脑。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   kam⁴ jat⁶ jau⁵ caak^6-2 jap⁶ zo² uk¹, tau¹ zau² zo² ngo⁵ bou⁶ din⁶ nou⁵. [Jyutping]

   Yesterday, a thief came into my house and stole my computer.

8. villain; traitor
9. ^† to steal
10. evil; wicked; treacherous
11. ^† to restrain
12. ^† ruthless; vicious
13. (colloquial, dialectal) cunning; wily; sly
14. ^† a kind of pest that eats the joints of a seedling

    蟊賊／蟊贼  ―  máozéi  ―  insects that eat the roots and the joints

• Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian (《现代汉语规范词典》) proscribes the use of the pronunciation zé.

Others:

• → Proto-Southwestern Tai: *sɤkᴰ
  • Thai: ศึก (sʉ̀k, “war, battle”)
• → Vietnamese: giặc
• →? Proto-Turkic: *yagï (war, bandit) (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Clipping of 賊拉／贼拉 (zéilā), borrowed from Korean 第一 (jeil, “first; most, -est”).

賊

1. (formerly dialectal, including Northeastern Mandarin, increasingly informal) very; particularly; immensely; extremely

   賊好看／贼好看  ―  zéi hǎokàn  ―  remarkably beautiful

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

• Go-on: ぞく (zoku, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: そく (soku)
• Kun: あだ (ada, 賊); そこなう (sokonau, 賊なう)^{←そこなふ (sokonafu, 賊なふ, historical)}; にしもの (nishimono, 賊); ぬすむ (nusumu, 賊む)

From Middle Chinese 賊 (MC dzok).

• (Tokyo) ぞく [zòkú] (Heiban – [0])[3][4]
• IPA^(key): [d͡zo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

賊(ぞく) • (zoku) 

1. thief
2. rebel

• 長髪賊(ちょうはつぞく) (chōhatsuzoku, “Taiping rebels”)

From Middle Chinese 賊 (MC dzok). Recorded as Middle Korean 적〮 (cék) (Yale: cek) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource 賊 (eumhun 도둑 적 (doduk jeok))

1. Hanja form^? of 적 (“thief”).

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

賊: Hán Nôm readings: tặc, giặc

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