<p>without implying that the classical explanation is necessarily correct, worth noting that 康熙字典 thinks 或 was the original single character for 惑, before the latter character was introduced. Not hard to see how the grammatical usages of 或 could have evolved while it still also meant 惑. Or the other way around, the grammatical function could have been original, from which the meaning of 惑 is easily derived.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T19:18:37.580Z
Another [explanation](http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/xs/6216.htm) is that 或 was the original character for 域 (and presumably the borrowing was phonetic? They're both "hok" in some dialects). Not sure which is more likely.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T19:26:05.173Z
Yeah, it's not clear. kangxi et al has the better argument wrt semantics.
Master Sparkles
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T15:51:20.470Z
2015-01-29T19:45:49.457Z
2015-01-29T19:45:49.457Z
Master Sparkles
<p>Tuan Yu-Ts'ai (段玉裁, 1735-1815), a scholar of the Empire of Ch'ing (大清), wrote a book 說文解字注, namely Annotated 說文解字. He made a note on 或. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>邦也。邑部曰。邦者，國也。</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>It is a state. 域, 邑, 邦, 國 are synonym. My Note : Ancient states were not bounded by borderline as today. Ancient people gathered and built fortified habitats and became city-states later. Between city-states there were vast pieces of unclaimed lands.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>葢或國在周時爲古今字。古文衹有或字。旣乃復製國字。</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>There was no character 國 in ancient world. Only character 或 existed at the time.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>以凡人各有所守。皆得謂之或。</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The place and act of people defense are called 或.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>各守其守，不能不相疑。</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>People of different places defense their own. They can't trust each other wholly.  It is doubt 疑.</p>
  </blockquote>
</blockquote>

<p>The outline of evolution of 或:</p>

<ol>
<li>或 by its sharp means that people pick up weapons and defense a place.</li>
<li>或 describes the act, and the place people defense. Later refers to a city-state. (It is the origin of character 國 and 域, city-state / state / country / empire and territories)</li>
<li>或 describes the distrust between city-states.</li>
<li>Distrust is doubt and uncertainty, the later meanings of 或. (It is the origin of 惑, doubt, puzzled, fooled)</li>
<li>With doubt and uncertainty, there comes the meaning of "maybe" of 或.</li>
<li>With "maybe", there comes the meaning of "or" of 或.</li>
</ol>

<p>All evolution happened few thousand years ago.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-03T03:46:00.783Z
2015-02-03T03:46:00.783Z
OmniBus
<p>None of these explanations are legitimate. 或 [gwək] the character represents "defended territory," i.e. a walled city, or something slightly larger. Both 國 [kʷək] (state) and 域 [gwrjək] (domain) are later cognates. This much is undisputed.</p>

<p>或 [gwək] was <em>also</em> borrowed for its phonetic value only to write the distributive pronoun "some," which is thought to be a derivative of 有 [gwjəʔ] (exist) via -k affixation. This use of 或 is where you see things like "或人" (someone), "或时" (sometime) in Classical Chinese. It is from this that the modern particles for "or," "maybe," etc. arise.</p>

<ul>
<li>或许... = some allows that ... => grammaticalized to "maybe..."</li>
<li>或(者)..., 或(者)... = some ..., some ... => grammaticalized to "either..., or..."</li>
</ul>

<p>Basically the usage of the "some" 或 came to represent choice.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-26T02:04:08.790Z
2018-07-26T02:04:08.790Z
Nimrod
<p>I have did some researches about the word "或"
Modern meaning of this word are "or", "either", "maybe" and perhaps (或许)</p>

<ol>
<li>弌 means taking the <strong>weapon</strong> (戈) and <strong>patrol around</strong>。</li>
<li>囗 means <strong>country</strong>, or <strong>boundaries</strong>。</li>
</ol>

<p>Thus, combination of this 2 words means taking the weapon and patrol around your country/boundaries.</p>

<p>边境巡逻，遇到敌情，具有不确定性，故本字在读音为时，表示一种“或然性”、“概然性”的概念，由此从实词转为虚词，衍生出“或许”、“或者”这一类表示“不能肯定”的词汇。</p>

<p>While you patrol around your country, you have no idea when the enemy will strike. So it happens you have a feeling of uncertainty.</p>

<p>This uncertainty evolve into the use of this word "或"</p>

<p>"Maybe later the enemies will strike?" Who knows </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T08:43:18.237Z
If you think my answer is not useful. Please refer this http://baike.baidu.com/view/270002.htm
Raynoceros
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T12:30:30.530Z
This is IMO a very good answer. Downvoters care to explain why?
Wang Dingwei
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2015-01-29T19:18:59.573Z
@WangDingwei 会意字 (characters whose meanings are determined by the meanings of the component parts) are _very rare_. In order to argue that a character is a 会意字, you need to rule out more likely explanations (e.g., phonetic borrowing). This answer does not do that. Master Sparkles suggested a plausible derivation involving 惑. In 5 minutes of looking around on zdic, I was able to find _another_ plausible derivation involving 域.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-30T00:37:37.773Z
@StumpyJoePete OK, that makes sense.
Wang Dingwei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T06:41:22.647Z
2015-01-29T06:41:22.647Z
Raynoceros
<p>The character <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/js/6216.htm">或</a> is used today for the meanings "or", "either", "maybe", and "perhaps". Historically, it had the meaning of "region", and it is this meaning that characters like 國 and 域 derive from.</p>

<p>This original definition is reasonable given its composition; it has the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger-axe">dagger-axe</a> radical (戈), and according to <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/sw/6216.htm">說文解字</a>, it signifies someone guarding territory:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>从囗从戈，以守一。一，地也。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Therefore, it's unclear how this character could get its modern meaning. How did this evolution take place?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T08:19:52.603Z
I think the obvious guess is that it's a 假借字, borrowed for it's phonetic value alone. After all, "or" (like many grammatical words) is not well suited to drawing a picture of.
Stumpy Joe Pete
<characters><etymology><glyph-origin>
或: how did "region" become "either"?
# 或: how did "region" become "either"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-29)

The character [或](http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/js/6216.htm) is used today for the meanings "or", "either", "maybe", and "perhaps". Historically, it had the meaning of "region", and it is this meaning that characters like 國 and 域 derive from.

This original definition is reasonable given its composition; it has the [dagger-axe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger-axe) radical (戈), and according to [說文解字](http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/sw/6216.htm), it signifies someone guarding territory:

> 从囗从戈，以守一。一，地也。

Therefore, it's unclear how this character could get its modern meaning. How did this evolution take place?

**Tags:** characters, etymology, glyph-origin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think the obvious guess is that it's a 假借字, borrowed for it's phonetic value alone. After all, "or" (like many grammatical words) is not well suited to drawing a picture of.  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-01-29. Score: 4

without implying that the classical explanation is necessarily correct, worth noting that 康熙字典 thinks 或 was the original single character for 惑, before the latter character was introduced. Not hard to see how the grammatical usages of 或 could have evolved while it still also meant 惑. Or the other way around, the grammatical function could have been original, from which the meaning of 惑 is easily derived.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Another [explanation](http://www.zdic.net/z/1a/xs/6216.htm) is that 或 was the original character for 域 (and presumably the borrowing was phonetic? They're both "hok" in some dialects). Not sure which is more likely.  
> **username_2**: Yeah, it's not clear. kangxi et al has the better argument wrt semantics.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-02-03. Score: 3

Tuan Yu-Ts'ai (段玉裁, 1735-1815), a scholar of the Empire of Ch'ing (大清), wrote a book 說文解字注, namely Annotated 說文解字. He made a note on 或.

> 邦也。邑部曰。邦者，國也。
>
> > It is a state. 域, 邑, 邦, 國 are synonym. My Note : Ancient states were not bounded by borderline as today. Ancient people gathered and built fortified habitats and became city-states later. Between city-states there were vast pieces of unclaimed lands.
>
> 葢或國在周時爲古今字。古文衹有或字。旣乃復製國字。
>
> > There was no character 國 in ancient world. Only character 或 existed at the time.
>
> 以凡人各有所守。皆得謂之或。
>
> > The place and act of people defense are called 或.
>
> 各守其守，不能不相疑。
>
> > People of different places defense their own. They can't trust each other wholly. It is doubt 疑.

The outline of evolution of 或:

1. 或 by its sharp means that people pick up weapons and defense a place.
2. 或 describes the act, and the place people defense. Later refers to a city-state. (It is the origin of character 國 and 域, city-state / state / country / empire and territories)
3. 或 describes the distrust between city-states.
4. Distrust is doubt and uncertainty, the later meanings of 或. (It is the origin of 惑, doubt, puzzled, fooled)
5. With doubt and uncertainty, there comes the meaning of "maybe" of 或.
6. With "maybe", there comes the meaning of "or" of 或.

All evolution happened few thousand years ago.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-07-26. Score: 2

None of these explanations are legitimate. 或 [gwək] the character represents "defended territory," i.e. a walled city, or something slightly larger. Both 國 [kʷək] (state) and 域 [gwrjək] (domain) are later cognates. This much is undisputed.

或 [gwək] was *also* borrowed for its phonetic value only to write the distributive pronoun "some," which is thought to be a derivative of 有 [gwjəʔ] (exist) via -k affixation. This use of 或 is where you see things like "或人" (someone), "或时" (sometime) in Classical Chinese. It is from this that the modern particles for "or," "maybe," etc. arise.

* 或许... = some allows that ... => grammaticalized to "maybe..."
* 或(者)..., 或(者)... = some ..., some ... => grammaticalized to "either..., or..."

Basically the usage of the "some" 或 came to represent choice.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2015-01-29. Score: 1

I have did some researches about the word "或"
Modern meaning of this word are "or", "either", "maybe" and perhaps (或许)

1. 弌 means taking the **weapon** (戈) and **patrol around**。
2. 囗 means **country**, or **boundaries**。

Thus, combination of this 2 words means taking the weapon and patrol around your country/boundaries.

边境巡逻，遇到敌情，具有不确定性，故本字在读音为时，表示一种“或然性”、“概然性”的概念，由此从实词转为虚词，衍生出“或许”、“或者”这一类表示“不能肯定”的词汇。

While you patrol around your country, you have no idea when the enemy will strike. So it happens you have a feeling of uncertainty.

This uncertainty evolve into the use of this word "或"

"Maybe later the enemies will strike?" Who knows

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: If you think my answer is not useful. Please refer this http://baike.baidu.com/view/270002.htm  
> **username_6**: This is IMO a very good answer. Downvoters care to explain why?  
> **username_1**: @WangDingwei 会意字 (characters whose meanings are determined by the meanings of the component parts) are _very rare_. In order to argue that a character is a 会意字, you need to rule out more likely explanations (e.g., phonetic borrowing). This answer does not do that. username_2 suggested a plausible derivation involving 惑. In 5 minutes of looking around on zdic, I was able to find _another_ plausible derivation involving 域.  
> **username_6**: @StumpyJoePete OK, that makes sense.  

---

