Chinese Character Wiki
公

gōng

public

Originally a pictograph of a vessel for holding liquid, now written as 瓮, with the 瓦 (pottery) component added at the bottom. The current meaning "public" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

公 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
公 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
公 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
公 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
公 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

公  

gōng

fair, equitable; public; duke; collectively owned; common; international (e.g. high seas, metric system, calendar); make public; fair; just; Duke, highest of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wǔ​děng​jué​wèi]; honorable (gentlemen); father-in-law; male (animal)

Most common words with 公
Freq.
Word
Meaning

公司

company

办公室

office

公寓

apartment building

公平

fair

公园

park (for public recreation)

Component uses

Sound component in 14 characters (5 verified)

容 松 瓮 衮 袞 訟 讼 翁 颂 頌 蚣 忪 鈆 彸

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C.qˤoŋ

kuwng

gōng

impartial, just; public

*C.qˤoŋ

kuwng

gōng

father; prince


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 92.1192% of movies

211th most common character in movies

115th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+516C

Shuowen

“公，平分也。从八、从厶。八，猶背也。韓非曰：‘背厶為公’。”


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