Interpretation of the Meaning Straight of Ting ( 铤 ) from the Perspective of Etymology—Discussing the Cognates that Contain Straight Semanteme Concurrently
The Seventeenth Year of Wengong, Zuozhuan （《左传·文公十七年》）contains a sentence ting er zouxian, ji he neng ze ( 铤 /挺而走险 , 急何能择 ), in which the word ting ( 铤 )was explained by Du Yu as jizou mao( 疾走貌 ) in Jin Dynasty. While in Qing Dynasty, Hong Liangji thought that it was composed of semantic element shou（手）and phonetic element ting（廷）in Zuozhuan Gu（《左传诂》）. Gao You thought it meant moving which was synonymous with running risks when he interpreted Lü Lan (《吕览》）. From the original meaning of zou( 走 ) referring to running, we know that The Great Chinese CharacterDictionary (《汉语大字典》), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Chinese Words (《汉语大词典》),The Chinese Etymology Dictionary (《辞 源》) andThe Dictionary of the Origin andDevelopment of Idioms (《成语源流通释大辞典》) all acknowledge Du Yu’ s interpretation, but Gao You and Hong Liangji thought ting ( 铤 ) means moving, however, these interpretations are all questionable actually. By the analysis of etymological meaning, we find that with similar sound and related meaning, ting (铤) has cognate relationship with words derived from the sounds ting ( 廷 ) and jing ( )respectively, and their common etymological meaning is the straight semanteme, so ting ( 廷 ) or ting ( 挺 )should be interpreted as stand straighten one’s back to stand up to take the responsibility bravely, and tingerzouxian ( 铤 /挺而走险 ) should be interpreted as going straight orstanding up for risks in an emergency or in the absence of a way to go, which is also in accordance with the emergency context of defending country as jihenengze ( 急何能择 ).
