Taxonomy of meanings for 取:　　

Additional information about 取

說文解字: 【取】，捕取也。从又、从耳。 〔小徐本「耳」上無「从」。〕 《周禮》：獲者取左耳。《司馬法》曰：載獻聝。聝者，耳也。 〔小徐本無「也」。〕 【七庾切】

Criteria
• DISCARD
  

  1. The standard general words for discarding something is qì 棄 (ant. qǔ 取 "choose to retain") and the somewhat rarer juān 捐.

  2. Qù 去 refers to the distancing oneself from something by rejecting it.

  3. Fèi 廢 and the rarer tì 替 (all ant. zhì 置 "establish"!!!! See also no. 4 below.) refer to discarding something one has made use of or has been involved with for some time.

  4. Shì 釋 (ant. liú 留 "keep in employment") and the rarer jiě 解 refer to rejecting the continued use of something.

  5. Wěi 委 and zhì 置 (ant.* zhí 執 "hold onto" or chí 持 "hold onto") refer to putting things aside. See DISREGARD

  6. Shě 捨 / 舍 (ant. qǔ 取 "pick out and choose") refers to letting go of or rejecting something that one might have chosen to retain or use.

  7. Què 卻 (ant. shòu 受 "accept for employment") typically refers to a rejection or discarding of something as useless.

• ANNEX
  

  [BASIC/DERIVED]

  [CURRENT/RARE]

  [DEROGATORY/COMMENDATORY]

  [DRAMATIC/UNDRAMATIC]

  [+FIG/LITERAL]

  [FORMAL/INFORMAL]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [TRANSITORY/LASTING]

  1. Jiān 兼 "annex" (ant. gē 割 (incidentally, anciently homophone of modern English "cut"!!!) "to cut off") is the neutral word used by the historian to record the facts without bias.

  [FORMAL], [GENERAL]

  2. Tūn 吞 "gulp up and annex" is metaphorical in nature, and pejorative as well as dramatic in force.

  [DERIVED], [DEROGATORY], [DRAMATIC], [INFORMAL]; [[RARE]]

  3. Bìng 并 "annex" (ant. fēn 分 "separate into two") is less formal, and is the commonest of the three.

  [GENERAL], [INFORMAL]

  4. Bìng 並 "annex" (ant. fēn 分 "separate into two") is sometimes used synonymously with bìng 并 but is not anciently homophonous with it, and the word is particularly current in the meaning of "together". See TOGETHER [NB: what confuses the situation is a great deal of printer's confusion in entering these different words, greatly exacerbatged by the problem of computerisation.]

  [GENERAL], [INFORMAL]

  5. Yǒu 有 can come to refer to the more or less lasting result of the process of annexation. See GOVERN(INCHOATIVE)

  [COMMENDATORY], [FORMAL], [INCHOATIVE], [LASTING], [STATE]

  6. Jù 據 can refer to the more or less lasting the result of the process of annexation.

  [LASTING], [RESULT], [STATE]; [[RARE]]

  7. Qǔ 取 refers to successful annexation, typically of a city.

• GIVE
  

  1. The most general word for to give is probably yǔ 與 (ant. qǔ 取 "take away from").

  2. Wèi 遺 and wěi 委 refer to any act of giving something to someone in permanence and for keeping.

  3. Cì 賜 can refer to an act of charity or to any giving of anything, typically from a person in authority to inferiors.

  4. Zèng 贈 refers to formal presents to an inferior from a person in high authority.

  5. Yí 貽 is an archaic colourless word for giving something away to someone of one's own volition, and the recipient may be of higher status than oneself.

  6. Zhì 致 is to hand over something or to pass something on to someone.

  7. Kuì 饋 typicall refers quite specifically to the conferring of a gift of food.

  8. Fù 賦 refers to giving something as reward or recompensation to somebody, typically to a person of lower status.

  9. Shòu 授 refers to the physical act of handing something over to a recipient.

• GATHER
  

  1. The most current general term for the temporary assembling of things is jù 聚 (ant. sàn 散 "spread") which can refer to the gathering together of what does not necessarily belong together and of what is not necessarily of the same kind and what will disperse or be dispersed.

  2. Liǎn 斂 (ant. sàn 散 "spread") refers to a human action of assembling things, prototypically taxes or the like, for future use.

  3. Shí 拾 "pick up" and qǔ 取 "pick, take" can come to refer to the gathering together for future use articles of common use, but occasionally these words can also take abstract objects in which case the nuance of gathering these for future use is retained.

• WIN
  

  1. The current general word for winning or gaining the upper hand in any way, including warfare, is shèng 勝 (ant. bài 敗 "be defeated").

  2. Kè 克 (ant. shī 失 "lose in battle") refers to subduing an enemy force by military means, winning against an enemy so as to control him as a result.

  3. Qǔ 取 (ant. fù 負 "fail") refers to conquering a place so as to gain full control over it, and the word usually refers to a victory won easily.

  4. Bá 拔 and jǔ 舉 refers to conquering a place without necessarily keeping full control over it.

  5. Jié 劫 refers specifically to victory gained through ruse or indirect tactics.

• CATCH
  

  1. The common general word is 獲 (ant. shì 釋 "set free") which can refer to the capturing or obtaining of anything that might conceivably try to escape (for dé 得 "obtain what generally does not try to escape capture" see OBTAIN).

  2. Qǔ 取 (ant. shě 捨 "relinguish, reject") is to take control of by force and applies typically to enemy territories or enemy cities in a conflict. See WIN

  3. Chí 持 (ant. shī 失 "lose hold of") refers to the capturing of non-human prey.

  4. Zhi 執 (refers to the capturing of any human and non-human prey. See also ARREST.

  5. Náng 囊 is specifically to capture by the use of a sack or bag.

  6. Guà 絓 refers to catching something on a hook, typically a hook attached to a string.

  7. Wò 握 is specifically to catch and get hold of something with one's bare hands.

  8. Yú 漁 refers very specifically to the catching and killing of fish. [See ANGLE]

  9. Dé 得 "obtain" can sometimes come to refer to catching what is trying to escape capture.

  10. Bǔ 捕 refers to catching animals typically in a habitual or professional way.

  NB: Zhuō 捉 came to mean "catch" in post-Han times.

• SUFFER
  

  1. The most general word referring to a person's being exposed to something is probably shòu 受 (ant. shī 施 "have an effect on, act upon"), which can take both desirable and non-desirable objects.

  2. Jiàn 見 tends to take verbal complements and tends to refer to a person being exposed to undesirable effects.

  3. Qǔ 取 refers to deliberate exposure to an action or exposure to something by one's own fault.

  4. Beì 被 tends to refer to exposure to undesirable effects from the outside.

  5. Zāo 遭 and yù 遇 refer to unexpected and unprovoked exposure to outside effects.

  6. Měng 蒙 often refers to deliberate exposure to negative outside dangers or effects, but the word also has a generalised use where it simply corresponds to shòu 受.

  7. Lí 罹 and its loan character lí 離 refer to innocently running into some trouble or encountering some sorrow.

  8. Xiàn 陷 "get trapped in" refers occasionally to a disastrous encounter with what turns out inescapable. See TRAP

• TAKE
  

  1. The current general word for to take is qǔ 取.

  2. Duó 奪 is to take by force or threat of force.

  3. Nián 拈 and cuò 撮 refer to taking by the use of one's fingers only.

  4. Jué 攫 refers to picking up something not easy to get hold of.

  5. Zhí 執 "hold" is occasionally used inchoatively to mean "take hold of".

  6. Tàn 探 refers to the act of stretching out one's hands straining to lay hold something and succeeding in this effort.

• PASSIVE MARKER
  

  1. The most current general marker of the passive is jiàn 見 which means literally "be exposed to, face".

  2. Passives in wéi 為 "be the object of" abstractly indicates that the verb it modifies is neutrally passive.

  3. Passives in bèi 被 "suffer" typically refers to the suffering of something undesirable.

  4. Passives in qǔ 取 "bring upon onesel" typically refers to the suffering of something undesirable by one's own fault.

  5. Passives in zāo 遭 "come upon" and yù 遇 "run into" refer to running into what tend to be undesirable situations one is exposed to.

  <div>6. Passives in shòu 受 "receive" refers to an agent being the recipient of some impact from the outside.</div><div><br></div><div>7. For passives in yú 於 see the entry under SUFFER.<br></div><br>NB: Note that the notion of the passive is notoriously hard to define for a language like classical Chinese. What some grammarians view as passive constructions will be construed by others as periphrastic ways of expressing with various transitive verbs what other other languages express with passive forms.

• OBTAIN
  

  1. The current general and highly abstract verb for obtaining any form of possession of anything abstract or concrete is dé 得 (ant. shī 失 "lose inadvertently").

  2. Obtaining something through effort and often with an element of choice involved is qǔ 取 (ant. qì 棄 "choose to reject").

  3. Obtaining something that tries to escape or is otherwise hard to get is huò 獲 (ant. wáng 亡 "miss out on, fail to get").

  4. Getting something which one has had before is fǎn 反.

• WIN TRUST
  

  1. The current general word for winning the trust and the confidence of a superior is dé 得 / 德.

  2. Qǔ 取 refers to gaining the allegiance of or gaining the trust of someone.

  3. Gān 干 and the rarer yāo 要 refers to seeking the allegiance of or advantages from, or good relations with superiors.

  4. Huái 懷 refers to seeking the allegiance of and cultivating good relations with inferiors or subjects.

• CHOOSE
  

  1. The general word for making a deliberate and in principle free choice is qǔ 取 "to choose or opt for (the preferred alternative), to prefer" (ant 捨 "reject"), and what is thus chosen or preferred may be concrete or abstract.

  2. Zé 擇 is "to choose between, make a free choice among (alternative objects presenting themselves)" and the word applies to all sorts of choices, formal or informal.

  3. Xuǎn 選 and the rarer bá 拔 (ant. chì 斥 "set aside") is an administrative term referring to the choice of incumbents for a position to be filled according to given criteria of choice.

  4. Cǎi 采 is close in meaning to qǔ 取 but does not naturally correspond to any antonym like shě 捨 "reject".

  5. Qū 趨 (ant. bì 避 "shy away from and avoid") and the rarer xiàng 嚮 (ant. bèi 背 "turn one's back on") refer to a tendency to exercise a certain preference.

  6. Níng 寧 "would rather, prefer to" expresses a free moral or intellectual or practical choice. See PREFER

• FETCH
  

  1. There is no word commonly used for the fetching of things, and the most current word sometimes used in this meaning is probably qǔ 取 (ant. yǔ 予 "give").

  2. Jí 汲 refers specifically to the fetching of water.

• PAY
  

  1. Probably the commonest word for payment of what is due is cháng 償 (ant. qiàn 欠 "continue to owe money").

  2. Yǔ 與 (ant. qǔ 取 "take") sometimes refers to payment (e.g. of interest).

  3. Chū 出 (ant. rù 入 "have as income") refers to the use of necessary resources in money in order to obtain something.

  4. Nà 內 "pay in" and the rarer rù 入 (ant. shōu 收 "receive money") are technical economic terms to paying something one owes something.

  5. Fù 負 occasionally comes to mean "pay out".

  6. Jué 決 refers specifically of paying taxes or fees that are due.

Word relations
• Result: (ANNEX)克/CONQUER1 Attribution
• Result: (WIN)攻/ATTACK The generalword for any attack is gōng 攻 (ant. shǒu 守 "defend") which can be used in a general sense referring to all kinds of attack, although that word does also have the specific meaning of a pointed campaign against a certain locality. [GENERAL] 2 Attributions
• Ant: (CHOOSE)去/DISCARD Qù 去 refers to the distancing oneself from something by rejecting it. 4 Attributions
• Ant: (TAKE)與 / 予/GIVE The most general word for to give is probably yǔ 與 (ant. qǔ 取 "take away from"). 1 Attribution
• Ant: (CHOOSE)捨 / 舍/REFUSE2 Attributions
• Contrast: (ANNEX)伐/ATTACK Fá 伐 refers to a large-scale typically destructive formal attack by one state on another, typically formally announced, and with much beating of drums. [DESCENDING], [MILITARY], [LARGE-SCALE!], [OVERT] 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (OBTAIN)得/OBTAIN The current general and highly abstract verb for obtaining any form of possession of anything abstract or concrete is dé 得 (ant. shī 失 "lose inadvertently").
• Assoc: (CATCH)捕/CATCH Bǔ 捕 refers to catching animals typically in a habitual or professional way.
• Assoc: (WIN)襲/ATTACK Xí 襲 refers to a surreptitious attack, on the sly, without any self-righteous pomp. [COVERT+], [MILITARY], [SPECIFIC]
• Assoc: (CHOOSE)采/CHOOSE Cǎi 采 is close in meaning to qǔ 取 but does not naturally correspond to any antonym like shě 捨 "reject".
• Synon: (WIN)拔/WIN Bá 拔 and jǔ 舉 refers to conquering a place without necessarily keeping full control over it. 1 Attribution
• Synon: (CHOOSE)拔/CHOOSE1 Attribution
• Synon: (OBTAIN)收/OBTAIN1 Attribution
• Synon: (OBTAIN)致/ACHIEVE Zhì 致 refers specifically to remarkable successful action, typically on others' behalf. [ALTRUISTIC], [DIFFICULT]; [VERB] 1 Attribution
• Oppos: (OBTAIN)捨 / 舍/DISCARD Shě 捨/舍 (ant. qǔ 取 "pick out and choose") refers to letting go of or rejecting something that one might have chosen to retain or use. 5 Attributions