去
- to go;
- to depart;
- to leave;
- to pass;
- to remove;
Etymology
The earliest forms of 去 show a person (大) standing above a receptacle or dwelling (凵).
This image signified a person departing from a place, hence “to go away.”
Two main interpretations exist:
Pictographic-ideographic — a person (大) leaving an open space (凵), symbolizing departure or leaving a dwelling.
Phono-semantic — according to Shuowen Jiezi, 凵 (𠙴, “vessel”) is phonetic, and 大 (“person”) provides the semantic element “to go or move.”
In Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):
「去，離也。从大从厺。厺，聲。」
“去 means to leave or depart; composed of 大 and phonetic 厺.”
In later scripts, 凵 simplified into a component resembling 土 and 厶, producing the modern form 去.
Thus, whether understood pictographically (“person leaving a dwelling”) or phono-semantically (“movement implied by 大, sound from 厺”), the essential concept remains departure or removal.
Usage in Korean
去來 (거래) — coming and going; trade; exchange.
去就 (거취) — conduct; advancement or withdrawal; one’s decision to act or resign
去除 (거제) — removal; elimination
消去 (소거) — erasure; elimination
除去 (제거) — to remove
遠去 (원거) — to go far away
已去 (이거) — gone; departed
來去 (래거) — to come and go
Words that derived from 去
Additional notes
Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典, vol. 216):
「去，往也，離也。凡去就、去來、去除皆此義。」
“去 means to go, to depart, to separate. Expressions such as 去就, 去來, 去除 all derive from this sense.”
In Classical Chinese thought, 去 symbolized the act of departure — physical, moral, or spiritual, the movement from attachment toward detachment.
Book of Documents (書經 · 禹貢):
「去水害。」
“To remove the harm of waters” — 去 in the sense of “to eliminate.”
Mencius (孟子 · 盡心下):
「去惡從善。」
“Abandon evil and follow good” — moral usage, “to discard.”
Zhuangzi (莊子 · 齊物論):
「去知與故。」
“Abandon knowledge and convention” — abstract, philosophical sense.
Shijing (詩經 · 小雅):
「去我蠻夷。」
“Drive away the barbarians from me” — martial or political sense, “to expel.”
Korean grammatical usage:
In gugyeol (口訣, Buddhist annotation system), 去 was often used to transcribe auxiliary or verbal endings like “거” or “-게,” reflecting motion or change of state (e.g., 가거라 “go away!”).
Thus, 去 stands as one of the most ancient and essential Chinese verbs, the counterpart of 來 (“to come”) and the archetype of motion, change, and release.
