ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

moreover; and; for the time being

qiě
5 strokes · 一 — pictograph: an ancestral tablet standing on its base · HSK 3

Where 且 comes from

The old form is a stone or wooden tablet raised on a stand — an ancestral altar slab, stacked with offerings. That original sense was later written 祖 (ancestor) with the altar radical added, leaving 且 free to be borrowed for its sound as a plain grammatical connector.

且 in Chinese culture

Today 且 almost never stands alone; it lives inside 而且 (moreover), the workhorse conjunction of written Chinese, and 并且 (and also). 况且 raises the stakes further: 'what is more'. 暂且 and 姑且 mean 'for the moment', a shrug written into a word.

Example

而且 érqiě — moreover; and also

他很聪明,而且很努力。
Tā hěn cōngmíng, érqiě hěn nǔlì.
He is very clever, and he works hard too.

How to remember it

A stack of offerings on an ancestral tablet — one more, AND one more, AND MOREOVER.

且 was borrowed purely for its sound. The altar it originally drew got the radical 礻added and became 祖, the character for ancestor.

Same sound, different tones

1st qiē
to cut
2nd qié
eggplant
3rd qiě
moreover

Words unlocked by 且

而且 érqiě
moreover
并且 bìngqiě
and also

Related characters

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