等

Étymologie et composants

The Chinese character 等 (děng) is composed of two parts: 亻(rén) and 登 (dēng). The radical 亻(rén) indicates that the character is related to people, while the phonetic component 登 (dēng) provides a clue to its pronunciation. The original meaning of 等 was "to climb" or "to ascend", which can be seen in the oracle bone script, where the character depicts a person climbing a ladder. Over time, the meaning of 等 expanded to include "to wait", "to expect", and "to be equal". In modern Chinese, 等 is commonly used as a suffix to indicate plurality or equality, as in 我们等 (wǒmen děng, "we") or 一等奖 (yī děng jiǎng, "first prize"). It can also be used as a verb, meaning "to wait" or "to expect", as in 我在等你 (wǒ zài děng nǐ, "I'm waiting for you").