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In this wiktionary page
[https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/厚](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8E%9A)
the etymology for the kanji 厚 is not complete: they wrote that it's an
ideogrammic compound but they didn't write the component functions. I want to
know the etymology for this kanji (and also if someone can complete this page
in wiktionary to help learners it would be great).
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question
kanji etymology history
What is the etymology of this kanji 厚?
This is a what I found in _成り立ちで知る漢字のおもしろ世界: 道具・家・まち編_ (by 伊東信夫). Translation
is by me, so might not be perfect, but here it goes:

「厚」is formed of 「厂」(がんだれ、cliff radical)、「子」and 「日」, the last two being
combined.

Although 「厂」usually means ''cliff'' (in fact being the bare minimum version of
「崖」), it here has the same meaning as 「宀」(ベン), namely **"the mausoleum in
which the spirits of the ancestors (祖霊、それい) are enshrined"**. The combination
of 「日」and 「子」symbolizes the alcohol offered to the ancestors during the
ceremony, hence meaning **"offering to the gods/ancestors"**.

Therefore, 「厚」means _honoring the ancestors in a 手厚い_ (the translation I found
is "warm, courteous", I would say that the nuance here is "to carefully attend
to", "with attention to details") _way_. It is thought that from this meaning,
「厚」evolved to mean「物の厚み」i.e. the thickness, profoundness of things.

Edit: looks like the above book is available on [google
books](https://books.google.fr/books?id=J5Glga71WuYC&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=%E5%8E%9A+%E6%88%90%E3%82%8A%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A1&source=bl&ots=f5TTNtj92s&sig=ACfU3U1EWjJHWCERiNA2mA5VSaLXaSwFvQ&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-
ipia2NfgAhWDAGMBHU5BA7EQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E5%8E%9A%20%E6%88%90%E3%82%8A%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A1&f=false)
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answer
「[厚]{こう}」( _thick, large, deep, strong_ ) is comprised of semantic「厂」( _cliff_
) and simultaneously semantic and phonetic「[]{こう}」( _salt container shaped
with a wide mouth and narrow neck_ > _thick, strong flavour of salt_ ). The
character「厚」was originally used to describe the wideness and deepness of lofty
hills and mountains.

「」was a character that fell into disuse very early on. As part of「厚」,「」was
later graphically corrupted into「⿱日子」, so「⿱日子・㫗」is now interpreted as a
variant form of「厚」.

`商  
甲  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rx2HR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rx2HR.png)  
佚211  
合集34124``春秋  
金  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eEMMY.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eEMMY.png)  
魯伯厚父盤  
集成10086``  
篆  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iE6nD.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iE6nD.png)  
說文解字  
``東漢  
隸  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uEY1Z.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uEY1Z.png)  
婁壽碑  
``今  
楷  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8iUNZ.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8iUNZ.png)  
  
`

> Note,「厚」and「」originally represented the same word; the different _kanji_
> gave the different nuances.

For reference, glyph evolution of「」, which depicts a vessel used for storing
salt, shaped with a wide opening and a narrow neck:

`商  
甲  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jC3zV.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jC3zV.png)  
後2.32.11  
合集18637``商  
金  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uu2Wx.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uu2Wx.png)  
冊丁酉爵  
集成8791``  
篆  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2CLKO.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2CLKO.png)  
說文解字  
``今  
楷  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KHVrt.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KHVrt.png)  
  
`

* * *

**Reference**

  * 季旭昇《說文新證》
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answer