洲

洲 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 水戈中中 (EILL), four-corner 3210₀, composition ⿰氵州)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 622, character 9
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17413
• Dae Jaweon: page 1018, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1616, character 6
• Unihan data for U+6D32

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *tju) : semantic 水 (“water”) + phonetic 州 (OC *tju).

Unknown.

According to the Erya and the Shiming, the following characters show some notable semantic relations (Schuessler, 2007)

渚 (OC *tjaʔ, “islet”) is smaller than 洲 (OC *tju)

沚 (OC *kjɯʔ, “islet”) is smaller than 渚 (OC *tjaʔ)

坻 (OC *tiːlʔ, *tjelʔ, *dil, “islet”) is smaller than 沚 (OC *kjɯʔ)

洲

1. islet in a river

   沙洲  ―  shāzhōu  ―  sandbank

   • 關關雎鳩，在河之洲。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     关关雎鸠，在河之洲。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Guānguān jūjiū, zài hé zhī zhōu. [Pinyin]

     Guan-guan go the ospreys, On the islet in the river.

2. continent

   亞洲／亚洲  ―  Yàzhōu  ―  Asia

   • 萬曆時，其國人利瑪竇至京師，為《萬國全圖》，言天下有五大洲。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     万历时，其国人利玛窦至京师，为《万国全图》，言天下有五大洲。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 17^th-18^th century, History of Ming

     Wànlì shí, qí guó rén Lìmǎdòu zhì jīngshī, wéi “Wànguóquántú”, yán tiānxià yǒu wǔdàzhōu. [Pinyin]

     During the Wanli era, a man from the country called Ricci went to the capital and produced A Map of the Myriad Countries; he said there were five continents in the world.

3. a surname: Zhou

• (continent): 大洲 (dàzhōu)

• “洲”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

1. continent

• Go-on: す (su)
• Kan-on: しゅう (shū)
• Kun: しま (shima, 洲)

In modern Japanese, 洲 is mostly replaced by 州, due to the deprecation of non-tōyō kanji caused by the Japanese script reform.

From Middle Chinese 洲 (MC tsyuw). Recorded as Middle Korean 쥬 (cyu) (Yale: cyu) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource 洲 (eumhun 물가 주 (mulga ju))

1. Hanja form^? of 주 (“continent”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

洲: Hán Nôm readings: chao, châu

1. continent

• Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển Hà Nội 1942
• Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
• Vũ Văn Kính: Đại Tự Điển Chữ Nôm, NXB Văn Nghệ, Ho Chi Minh Ville