Meanings
- rareFanqie.
Another related phenomenon, which lasted from at least the latter part of the tenth century until the end of the nineteenth century, was the practice of writing fan-ch'ieh (countertomy or reverse cutting), Buddhist-inspired pseudo-spellings as one graph instead of three.
2010, Victor H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 401 more example
Here we need mention only such momentous developments as the creation of countertomy or cut-and-splice pseudospelling (fan-ch'ieh), generally attributed for the last thousand years to the Buddhists, which for the first time enabled Chinese to indicate the pronunciation of unknown graphs fairly unambiguously and analytically [...].
1994, The journal of Asian studies
Origin
- Chinese反切
- Englishcountertomy
From counter- + -tomy, a calque of Chinese 反切.
More words from Chinese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
countertomy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countertomy
“countertomy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countertomy. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “countertomy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/countertomy.
Source: countertomy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.