Taxonomy of meanings for 差:　　

  • 差 chāi (OC: skhreed MC: tʂʰɯæi) 楚皆切 平 廣韻：【簡也楚皆切又楚宜楚牙楚懈三切二 】
  • 差 chài (OC: skhreels MC: tʂʰɯæ) 楚懈切 去 廣韻：【病除也楚懈切又楚冝楚皆初牙三切七 】
    • CURE
      • vt(oN)get the contextually determined condition N cured
      • vtoNmiddle voicebe cured
  • 差 chāi (OC: skhreel MC: tʂʰɯæ) 楚佳切 平 廣韻：【差殊又不齊 】
  • 差 cī (OC: skhral MC: tʂʰɯiɛ) 楚宜切 平 廣韻：【次也不齊等也楚宜切又楚佳楚懈二切四 】
  • 差 chā (OC: skhraal MC: tʂʰɯa) 初牙切 平 廣韻：【擇也又差舛也 】
    • MISTAKE
      • vibe mistaken
      • vtoNget something wrong; deviate improperly from
      • vidiffer from the norm; be inaccurateCH
      • moral>WICKED
        • feature>DIFFERENT
          • nab.t:post-Nmathematical termCHEMLA 2003: differenceThis word occurs only in the commentaries, and not in JZ. One might think of 差 as the result the operation of substraction. In the formulation xy 差 "difference between x and y" the reference is to the result of subtracting the smaller one of x and y from the larger.JZ 9.5, Liu Hui's comm: 是其冪以股弦差為廣股弦并為袤 "As for this its quantified extension one takes the difference between the height and the hypotenuse as width, and one takes the sum of the height and the hypotenuse as length." Note that while bìng 并 is used both before and after the two terms added, and can even intervene between the two, chà 差 only occurs in "inverse Polish notation" word order, after the two terms between which the difference is calculated.JZ 9.15: 句弦差減股為圓徑 "Subtracting the difference between the base and the hypotenuse from the height makes the diameter of a circle."JZ 9.15, Liu Hui's comm: 以句弦差乘股弦差而倍之，開方除之... "Multiplying the difference between the base and the hypotenuse by the difference between the height and the hypotenuse, doubling this and dividing the result (note that 之 regularly refers to the result of the operation immediately preceding, thus not being strictly anaphoric) by extraction of the square root..."When the difference between x and y itself becomes a term in further calculation, it can be referred to only by chà 差, never by 減. The operation itself, also, must then always be designated with chà 差.
          • nabactdistinction made; differentiation in practice; hierarchical differentiation
          • nabmathematical termCHEMLA 2003: differenceJZ 9.6, Liu Hui's comm: 減此差冪於矩冪 "One subtracts the square of this difference from the quantified extension of the gnomon."
          • vt(oN)be different from N; be an exception
          • vi2deviate from each other, be inconsistent with each otherCH
          • putative>DISTINGUISH
            • vtoNdistinguish; sort out the difference; establish a difference (in treatment)
          • adverbial: deviating by a little>TENUOUS
        • HALF
        • 差 chà (OC: kljul MC: kʰʷiɐŋ) 楚嫁切 去 《集韻》楚嫁切，去禡初。
        • 差 ｃｕｏ１《集韻》倉何切，平歌清。
          • INTERTWINED
          • RUB
          • 差 ｊｉｅ１《集韻》咨邪切，平麻精。
            • =嗟
          • chāiWORKER
            • npost-Han, TANG: corvee labourer

          Additional information about 差

          說文解字:

            Criteria
          • MISTAKE

            1. The most current general word for a mistake is probably shī 失 (ant. dé 得 "get things right") refers generally to an inadvertent mistake in action, and normally of minor kind.

            2. Wù 誤 (ant. zhèng 正 "correct") typically refers quite generally to intellectual misapprehension.

            3. Miù 謬 (ant. zhèng 正 "correct") typically refers to an intellectual misapprehension because of complete baselessness of what is being said.

            4. Quē 闕 (ant. wán 完 "completely right") is a polite circumlocution for a superior's inadvertencies or mistakes in action..

            5. Tè 忒 and chà 差 is an archaic word for unreglemented personal or political conduct.

            NB: Cuò 錯 as a standard word for "mistake" is post-Han.

          • HIERARCHY

            CF. 差等

          • MOUTH ORGAN

            1. The most current word for an upright pipe organ is yú 竽, which refers to an organ with 36 bamboo pipes arranged tightly together on a gourd. See ill..

            2. Shēng 笙 refers to smaller variety of the upright yú 竽 with between 13 and 19 pipes.

            3. Xiāo 簫 refers to a system of 32 pipes arranged on one plane. A smaller variety had 16 pipes so arranged. It was played in the manner of the modern mouth organ. It is also called cēn cī 參差.

          • EQUAL

            1. The dominant general word for something being equal to something else without being identical or the same is tóng 同 (ant. yì 異 "of different status").

            2. Děng 等 refers to things being on the same physical level or exposed to the same physical conditions. Cf. 差等 "hierarchy".

            3. Jūn 均 typically refers to an even, equable, and equal distribution of things.

            4. O ㄆ偶 refers specifically to the situation where two things form a pair.

            5. Dí 敵 refers to someone who is the equal of someone else in a contest, and in fact probably able to win against the other party. The term is thus someone marginal in the group.

            6. Rú 如 refers to equalling something else as it were "from below", coming up to a something else in a certain sense.

          • DIFFERENT

            1. The dominant general term for difference is yì 異 (ant. tóng 同 "be the same").

            2. Fēn 分 and bié 別 is a difference established by humans through convention or by an intellectual effort. See DISTINGUISH

            3. Chà 差 (ant. děng 等 "be without difference established by social conventions") refers to a difference established through social practice.

            4. Shū 殊 (ant. jìn 近 "essentially close to", yī 一 "be one and the same") refers abstractly to a categorial distance.

            Word relations
          • Synon: (DIFFERENT)別/DIFFERENT Fēn 分and bié 別 is a difference established by humans through convention or by an intellectual effort. See DISTINGUISH