Abstract
The Chinese characters 桔 and 橘 share the same pronunciation “jú”, but differ semantically in etymology. Back to the early Qing Dynasty, 桔 referred to a particular kind of citrus 橘柚 in colloquial Cantonese, then it gradually extended its denotation in modern Standard Chinese, and coexisted with 橘 as its lexical variant. Different dictionaries give different definitions to桔, mainly refer to 桔 as a popular form of 橘, and some even argue that 桔 is a misuse of 橘. It is suggested that the real status of language use should be the focus of contemporary dictionaries and language teachers and words like 桔 should be recognized, since 桔 has been in wider use than 橘 has.
| Keywords: | variation of 桔 and 橘; borrowing; diffusion |
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