<blockquote>
<p>Please note &quot;学校&quot; is not a Chinese concept at all</p>
</blockquote>
<p>this info is <strong>incorrect</strong></p>
<p>“學校” as a term, referred to “school”, is quite ancient. even a simple search in ctext.org have 24 occurrences in literatures before 秦 dynasty:</p>
<p><a href="https://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han/zh?searchu=%E5%AD%B8%E6%A0%A1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han/zh?searchu=學校</a></p>
<p>most of them means “school”, such as:</p>
<p><a href="https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&amp;id=647031" rel="nofollow noreferrer">獨斷 卷上</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>三代<strong>學校</strong>之別名：夏曰校，殷曰序，周曰庠</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&amp;id=75241" rel="nofollow noreferrer">後漢書 列傳 班彪列傳下</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>是以四海之內，<strong>學校</strong>如林，庠序盈門，獻酬交錯，俎豆莘莘，下舞上歌，蹈德詠仁。</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&amp;id=76602" rel="nofollow noreferrer">後漢書 列傳 鄭孔荀列傳</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>更置城邑，立<strong>學校</strong>，表顯儒術，薦舉賢良鄭玄、彭璆、邴原等。</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>My research on shuowen says that the original meaning was some sort of beam where prisoners' legs were shackled to. This to me makes sense even with the phonetic 交 representing a prisoner shackled to a leg brace with his legs crossed</p>
</blockquote>
<p>unless you have very strong arguments, stick to what 說文解字 said.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>校 木囚也。从木，交聲。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>it stated clearly that “交” is the <strong>phonetic</strong> component. making semantic inference from a phonetic component is, imo, improper.</p>
<p>an analog: in the word “starboard”, “star” provided the sound only. if one argued that “starboard” means “a star shaped board”, because the first four characters means “star”, isn’t it ridiculous?</p>
<p>back to “校”, look at the homophone “效”, this character is older.</p>
<p><a href="http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E6%95%88" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=效</a></p>
<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T06:25:23.883Z
Quote:- "an analog: in the word “starboard”, “star” provided the sound only" This is incorrect. "The term starboard derives from the Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is steered. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered with a steering oar at the stern of the ship on the right hand side of the ship, because more people are right-handed"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_starboard. Have fun :)
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T06:43:09.297Z
@WayneCheah, you treat “starboard” as a word. my analog is: divide “starboard” into components “star” + “board”, to compare with “校” -> “木” + “交”. think again 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T09:10:50.057Z
涨姿势 了。  Thanks for the info.
James Liu 刘老师
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-04T17:55:29.603Z
"making semantic inference from a phonetic component is, imo, improper"--quite the contrary, it is often appropriate since many semantic+phonetic characters are historically specializations of the phonetic written by itself, e.g. 鯿魚 is derived from 扁魚, 鯨 is the 魚 fish that is 京 big and so on.
John Frazer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-05T14:00:28.367Z
@JohnFrazer, interesting  there’re six writings (六書), so, why do you assign these two characters (鯿, 鯨) into phono-semantic compound characters (形聲字) in the first place? wouldn’t rebus (phonetic loan) characters (假借字) a better choice? have fun 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T05:43:04.033Z
2020-10-03T05:43:04.033Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>校 was pronounced jiao instead of xiao in the beginning.  It was a military term covering quite wide meaning: to inspect the troops; to practice drill; to compete military skills.  The place to do so is always a big open field surrounded by high wood fence, hence radical of wood and the place is 校场。 Please note &quot;学校&quot; is not a Chinese concept at all (&quot;学堂“ was used then as all classes are conducted indoor).  It was introduced to China in late 19th century by westerners.  The biggest difference is there is always a big field for the students to do various activities, and it looks exactly like 校场 with similar functions。 Not suitable to call it 学堂 anymore, so, call it &quot;学校&quot; emphasizing it's for education, not military.  I am not sure, but I think the shifting of pronunciation happened around that time also.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-02T20:31:27.460Z
Now it's clear that "交" purely contribute the phonetic side, not the meaning side.  So, it's not wood + embrace.
James Liu 刘老师
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T07:08:09.273Z
This doesn’t begin to answer the question(?).
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-02T20:27:37.803Z
2020-10-02T20:27:37.803Z
James Liu 刘老师
<p><em>Outlier</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>xiào</strong><br />
○ school</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">phonetic loan</a>. So, basically it is just a:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>character that is &quot;borrowed&quot; to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems that the earliest reading was jiào and not xiào; 校 was just borrowed for its close proximity in sound.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-02T17:07:46.073Z
2020-10-02T17:07:46.073Z
Mou某
<p>When learning Chinese characters using radicals, this character 校 always seem to puzzle me. I've always known 校 to be school, but the &quot;wood&quot; radical never made any sense to me. What does wood or tree have to do with school? Why not use a radical that is related to buildings (广 or 宀) or even children (as in 学).
My research on shuowen says that the original meaning was some sort of beam where prisoners' legs were shackled to. This to me makes sense even with the phonetic 交 representing a prisoner shackled to a leg brace with his legs crossed. My question is when, and how did 校 suddenly come to mean &quot;school&quot;?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-03T00:33:15.820Z
I read the title and was curious as well until I saw "beam where prisoners were shackled to" and now I think its pretty self explanatory
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-03T17:14:00.570Z
@小奥利奥 A bit more straightforward and honest than you'd normally expect, though, eh?
Calion
<etymology><glyph-origin><character-components>
校 - How did "leg-brace" come to mean "school"?
# 校 - How did "leg-brace" come to mean "school"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-02)

When learning Chinese characters using radicals, this character 校 always seem to puzzle me. I've always known 校 to be school, but the "wood" radical never made any sense to me. What does wood or tree have to do with school? Why not use a radical that is related to buildings (广 or 宀) or even children (as in 学).
My research on shuowen says that the original meaning was some sort of beam where prisoners' legs were shackled to. This to me makes sense even with the phonetic 交 representing a prisoner shackled to a leg brace with his legs crossed. My question is when, and how did 校 suddenly come to mean "school"?

**Tags:** etymology, glyph-origin, character-components
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I read the title and was curious as well until I saw "beam where prisoners were shackled to" and now I think its pretty self explanatory  
> **username_2**: @小奥利奥 A bit more straightforward and honest than you'd normally expect, though, eh?  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-10-02. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

*Outlier*

> **xiào**  
> ○ school

Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a [phonetic loan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters). So, basically it is just a:

> character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme

It seems that the earliest reading was jiào and not xiào; 校 was just borrowed for its close proximity in sound.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-10-03. Score: 1

> Please note "学校" is not a Chinese concept at all

this info is **incorrect**

“學校” as a term, referred to “school”, is quite ancient. even a simple search in ctext.org have 24 occurrences in literatures before 秦 dynasty:

[https://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han/zh?searchu=學校](https://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han/zh?searchu=%E5%AD%B8%E6%A0%A1)

most of them means “school”, such as:

[獨斷 卷上](https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=647031)

> 三代**學校**之別名：夏曰校，殷曰序，周曰庠

[後漢書 列傳 班彪列傳下](https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=75241)

> 是以四海之內，**學校**如林，庠序盈門，獻酬交錯，俎豆莘莘，下舞上歌，蹈德詠仁。

[後漢書 列傳 鄭孔荀列傳](https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=76602)

> 更置城邑，立**學校**，表顯儒術，薦舉賢良鄭玄、彭璆、邴原等。

> My research on shuowen says that the original meaning was some sort of beam where prisoners' legs were shackled to. This to me makes sense even with the phonetic 交 representing a prisoner shackled to a leg brace with his legs crossed

unless you have very strong arguments, stick to what 說文解字 said.

> 校 木囚也。从木，交聲。

it stated clearly that “交” is the **phonetic** component. making semantic inference from a phonetic component is, imo, improper.

an analog: in the word “starboard”, “star” provided the sound only. if one argued that “starboard” means “a star shaped board”, because the first four characters means “star”, isn’t it ridiculous?

back to “校”, look at the homophone “效”, this character is older.

[http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=效](http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E6%95%88)

have fun :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Quote:- "an analog: in the word “starboard”, “star” provided the sound only" This is incorrect. "The term starboard derives from the Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is steered. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered with a steering oar at the stern of the ship on the right hand side of the ship, because more people are right-handed"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_starboard. Have fun :)  
> **username_3**: @WayneCheah, you treat “starboard” as a word. my analog is: divide “starboard” into components “star” + “board”, to compare with “校” -> “木” + “交”. think again   
> **username_5**: 涨姿势 了。  Thanks for the info.  
> **username_6**: "making semantic inference from a phonetic component is, imo, improper"--quite the contrary, it is often appropriate since many semantic+phonetic characters are historically specializations of the phonetic written by itself, e.g. 鯿魚 is derived from 扁魚, 鯨 is the 魚 fish that is 京 big and so on.  
> **username_3**: @JohnFrazer, interesting  there’re six writings (六書), so, why do you assign these two characters (鯿, 鯨) into phono-semantic compound characters (形聲字) in the first place? wouldn’t rebus (phonetic loan) characters (假借字) a better choice? have fun   

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2020-10-02. Score: -1

校 was pronounced jiao instead of xiao in the beginning. It was a military term covering quite wide meaning: to inspect the troops; to practice drill; to compete military skills. The place to do so is always a big open field surrounded by high wood fence, hence radical of wood and the place is 校场。 Please note "学校" is not a Chinese concept at all ("学堂“ was used then as all classes are conducted indoor). It was introduced to China in late 19th century by westerners. The biggest difference is there is always a big field for the students to do various activities, and it looks exactly like 校场 with similar functions。 Not suitable to call it 学堂 anymore, so, call it "学校" emphasizing it's for education, not military. I am not sure, but I think the shifting of pronunciation happened around that time also.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Now it's clear that "交" purely contribute the phonetic side, not the meaning side.  So, it's not wood + embrace.  
> **username_7**: This doesn’t begin to answer the question(?).  

---

