Chinese symbol for “originate”
发起
fā qǐ
Traditional: 發起
to originate; to initiate; to launch (an attack, an initiative etc); to start
The closest CC-CEDICT match for originate is 发起 (fā qǐ), defined as: to originate; to initiate; to launch (an attack, an initiative etc); to start; to propose sth (for the first time).
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “originate”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 首创 (首創) | shǒu chuàng | to originate; to pioneer; to invent |
| 缘起 (緣起) | yuán qǐ | to originate; origin; genesis |
| 发端 (發端) | fā duān | to originate; to initiate; beginning; origin |
| 源起 | yuán qǐ | to originate |
| 起源 | qǐ yuán | origin; to originate |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 发起.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 发展 (發展) | fā zhǎn | development; growth |
| 发生 (發生) | fā shēng | to happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises") |
| 发现 (發現) | fā xiàn | to notice; to become aware of; to discover; to find; to detect |
| 开发 (開發) | kāi fā | to exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop |
| 发布 (發佈) | fā bù | variant of 发布 (fā bù) |
| 起来 (起來) | qǐ lai | to stand up; to get up; also pr. [qi3lai2] |
| 一起 | yī qǐ | (in) the same place; together; in company (with) |
| 引起 | yǐn qǐ | to give rise to; to lead to; to cause; to arouse |
See also: Japanese symbol for “originate”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.