Etymology of 牀 vs 床?

[Pegasus]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm really curious about 牀 vs 床. I'm told that 牀 is an alternative form of 床, but it is apparent to me that 床 is far more common. 

 

For example: 起床 qǐchuáng - to get up (out of bed) / wake up

Which groups of people would write 起牀 instead? 

 

Does 牀 come after 床 etymologically? Or, did 牀 precede 床? Is there a history or story behind 牀?

 

I have no idea where to find the answers to these questions. I'm hoping someone here might know. 

 

Cheers,

Pegasus

 

[Publius]

2 hours ago, Pegasus said:

did 牀 precede 床?

Yes it did.

Here is the proof:

牀 was in the 2nd-century dictionary 說文解字 http://www.zdic.net/z/1e/sw/7240.htm

床 as an variant was first mentioned in the 11th-century rime book 廣韻 http://www.zdic.net/z/1e/kx/7240.htm

When it comes to etymologies of Chinese characters, 說文解字 and 康熙字典 are pretty much the ultimate source. And you can access both through www.zdic.net.

 

[OneEye]

3 hours ago, Publius said:

When it comes to etymologies of Chinese characters, 說文解字 and 康熙字典 are pretty much the ultimate source.

 

Not really. Both are deeply flawed. Liu Zhao (劉釗), the director of the Fudan University's Center for Research on Chinese Excavated Classics and Paleography (復旦大學出土文獻與古文字研究中心) and one of the world's foremost experts on paleography, says that of the characters in the 說文解字 that we have paleographic data for, 80-90% of the explanations in the 說文 are problematic. There's a whole field of research devoted to correcting the errors in the Shuowen.

 

But in this case, you're right that 牀 preceded 床. The original form of 床 was 爿. Later, 木  was added to create 牀. 牀 then corrupted into 疒+木 (easy to do since they resemble each other closely), which further corrupted into 床.

[Pegasus]

Does anyone still write 牀 (like in 起牀)? Maybe in the Hong Kong or Taiwan communities? Or does everyone write 床 now? 

[lips]

Yes, outside of the mainland where Traditional characters are used, but not often.  Not that rare either.

 

I sometimes do.