It is a semantic compound character, formed by combining 之 ("to go"), and 儿 ("person" or "legs of a person").
The meaning "first" comes from the idea of a person stepping ahead of others—i.e., moving forward before others.

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

a Buddhist monk, a member of the Buddhist clergy

price, value, worth

bearing, demeanor, conduct, rule, law, ceremony, etiquette

a hundred million, 100.000.000, hundred-millionth

abundant, excellent, superior, gentle, actor

first, beginning, origin, chief

elder brother, senior male relative

a trillion, omen, sign, portent

first, foremost, before, earlier

light, radiance, brilliance

child, infant

inside, inner, within

whole, complete, entire

two, a pair, both

fair, impartial, public, official, common

six, number 6, sixth

together, shared, common

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Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

先

Etymology

Words that derived from 先

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References