What is the etymology of 料峭?

[chevil]

料峭, chilly (particularly of spring, apparently). I'm wondering if anybody knows the answer to this. The 峭 presumably takes on its meaning of 'strict, harsh'. What about the 料? It has verbal meanings of (MOE dictionary)

估量、猜度

稱量、計算、清點

照顧、處理

丟掉、扔下

none of which really match the semantics of 料峭 that well. Anybody have a grasp on what the first syllable means? Is it possible that the full word originally meant something along the lines of 'to be strict with' and then shifted meaning to 'chilly' (e.g. English 'harsh winds')?

[charlene]

It's a disyllabic Chinese word (連綿詞). The meaning of 料峭 is not necessary to be related to the meaning of 料 or 峭. The definition of 連綿詞 is "if one of the characters cannot be used to create another meaningful word, then this word is a 連綿詞." For example, 蝴蝶(butterfly), 蝶=butterfly but 蝴 can only be used with 蝶. 蝴 itself is meaningless. There are some other examples, like 玲瓏, 徘徊, etc.

[chevil]

Thanks -- interesting! Are there alternate ways of writing this word that you know of?

[xiaocai]

Maybe not.

[charlene]

In usual, 料峭 is used as an idiom, 春寒料峭. There is no other way to write this idiom. However, if you are asking some other words to describe "a little bit cold and chilly", you can say 微寒 or 略寒, but the meaning is slightly different. Also, 料峭 is more elegant.

[Michaelyus]

My totally unsubstantiated gut feeling is that the 料 fits into the second meaning. The fact that it's fourth tone in Mandarin fits those meanings of reckoning, imagining, forecasting. Of course there's also the idiom 料峭春寒, which reinforces that meaning. I think that's the most likely explanation - it's the one that makes the most sense to me anyway. Whether that's what actually happened is another matter entirely.