subcharacter

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *upó

Proto-Italic *supo

Latin sub

Latin sub-der.

English sub-

Pre-Greekbor.?

Pre-Greekbor.?

Ancient Greek χαράκ-ι̯ω (kharák-i̯ō)?

Ancient Greek χαράσσω (kharássō)

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Hellenic *-tḗr

Ancient Greek -τήρ (-tḗr)

Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)der.

Latin charactērder.

Old French caracterebor.

Middle English caracter

English character

English subcharacter

From sub- + character.

Noun

subcharacter (plural subcharacters)

1. A lesser or secondary character in fiction.
   • 2007, R. Barton Palmer, Twentieth-Century American Fiction on Screen, page 65:

     The characters, the subcharacters, the mature but tragic love story, all appealed to me. And the technique of telling the stories with a narrator who would function like a Greek chorus occurred to me in what I thought was a brilliant flash.

2. Any of the components making up a complex text character.
   • 1990, Allen Kent, James G. Williams, Encyclopedia of Microcomputers, volume 6:

     However, as discussed by Melton, a Chinese character is an ideograph which frequently contains two or more parts called subcharacters. The subcharacters are commonly called radicals in Chinese lexicography.

Adjective

subcharacter (not comparable)

1. Of less than one text character.