江
- river, great river;
originally a proper noun for the Yangtze River (長江), later generalized to mean rivers (esp. in southern China).
Etymology
Phono-semantic compound:
水 (water) - meaning “river, water.”
工 (craftsman, gong) - provides sound.
Early usage: referred specifically to the Yangtze River, later generalized to mean “big river.”
Usage in Korean
長江 (장강) — Yangtze River
大江 (대강) — the great river (Yangtze)
江河 (강하) — rivers in general
Words that derived from 江
Additional notes
Chinese: 江 usually refers to southern rivers, while 河 refers to northern or foreign rivers.
Korean: 江 is used for major rivers (강).
Japanese: rarely used for “river” (instead 川 is standard); 江 remains in fixed terms like 江戶 (Edo, Tokyo’s old name).
Vietnamese: adopted as giang, still used in compounds (e.g., 漢江 - Hàn Giang).
Linguistic note: Old Chinese *krong is thought to be borrowed from Proto-Austroasiatic *ruŋ ~ *ruəŋ, related to modern Vietnamese sông (“river”) and Thai klong (“canal”).
