丟字溯源

A Study on the Source of Character“Diou（丟）”

「丟」是現代漢字中極常用的字，《漢語大字典》記錄「丟」字的主要義項有遺失、拋棄、投拋等義。「丟」字為什麼具有這些義項？又「丟」字形體與讀音從何而來？形成於何時？對於這些問題過去都沒有一清楚的答案。本文將透過對敦煌及傳世文獻中相關詞例的整理，嘗試勾勒出「丟」字形構形乃由「一去不還」的「一去」組合而成，為一個會意字，讀音「diou」可能與「投」的讀音有關，字形產生的時間可能在宋代。「丟」字形成初期僅使用於通俗文學中，至明代得到廣泛的流行，在詞義及詞彙上都獲得迅速的發展，而在使用範圍上也由通俗文學傳播到主流知識分子的學術著作中。綜合的來看，「丟」字的使用至明代已發展成熟，並一直沿用至今。最後，討論了丟官、丟手二詞的形成，是在去官、去手二詞的基礎上發展而來的。

“Diou（丟）”is a very common word in the modern Chinese character . According to the Chinese Language Dictionary , the essential meaning of“Diou（丟）”are : to lose , to leave , to throw ,etc. Why the word“Diou（丟）”has such explanations as above? What’s the source of the original meaning and sound of this character? And when did the word begin? We couldn’t have the exact answers to those questions before. The essay try to explain this word“Diou（丟）”through the using of relative words in DunHuang’s manuscripts and the other old documents. We clearly analyze that the word“Diou（丟）”is combined by the characters“Yi（一）”and“Qu（去）”, and the sound“Diou”is a regional accent in pronunciation, it began from the north China of the Kingdom of Jin（金）in the South Song dynasty. The word“Diou（丟）”was used only in the popular literature at the earlier stages of time, its meanings were wide-spread in the Ming dynasty. The using of“Diou（丟）”was also copied forward to the intellectual class’s writing. We sum up that the using of word“Diou（丟）”was well-develop in the Ming dynasty and keep using constantly till now.