Etymology

chi

C3H4I1

Today it means: The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets. Full definition →

Latin chī ← Ancient Greek χεῖ
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

chi · noun1

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromχεῖ
  2. Latin · derived fromchī
  3. English todaychi

From Latin chī, from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî).

chi · noun2

From the Mandarin 氣／气 (qì) from the Wade–Giles romanization: chʻi⁴, from Middle Chinese 氣 (MC khj+jH), from Old Chinese 氣 (OC *kʰɯds, “breath, vapor”). Compare modern Japanese 気(き) (ki), Korean 기(氣) (gi) and Vietnamese khí (氣).

chi · noun3

  1. Mandarin · borrowed from尺
  2. English todaychi

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin 尺 (chǐ). Doublet of chek.

Chi · proper noun4

From the Wade-Giles romanization of the Mandarin Chinese 齊 /齐 (Qí).

Chi · proper noun5

Apocopic form of Chicago.

Chi · proper noun6

Apocopic form of Chichester.

Chi · proper noun7

  1. Chinese · borrowed from姞
  2. English todayChi

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 姞 (Jí), sometimes derived from 女 (“woman, matriarchal clan marker”) + 吉 (jí, “lucky”). Doublet of Ji.

Words from the same roots

Chinese姞 all →

JI

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.