I need to learn what?

This is an interesting case. I don't find a meaning of 續 relevant to 手續 listed in two of my Chinese-Chinese dictionaries, but I did find in the Shogakukan Chinese-Japanese dictionary a statement that Chinese 手續 is from Japanese 手続き ("日本語の「手続き」から出た言葉"). Which implies that 手續 is an import from Japanese.

(手続き is a Japanese expression, probably not coined with current Chinese usages in mind.)

I was trying to find information on etymology all across the web and nothing was coming up, although I was pretty sure it was a loan from Japanese. I can't say I understand what the continuation of hands has to do explicitly with procedures, although I can imagine some things. The oldest sense of it in Japanese is a connection, or a place to grab onto something (or a hint... that may not be the sense of 手掛かり they meant, though). There are lots of 手 expressions in Japanese. It has lots of meanings. Just scroll down this page.

Interesting......

I guess I never thought of Chinese taking "general" words from Japanese. Food, places, slang, yes. But not general words. No idea why not, makes sense that it would.

Thanks!

The 漢語外來詞詞典 agrees it's a loan from Japanese:

手續 shǒuxù： 辦事的程序。源：日 手続 tse-tsuzuki

Interesting......

I guess I never thought of Chinese taking "general" words from Japanese. Food, places, slang, yes. But not general words. No idea why not, makes sense that it would.

Thanks!

You wouldn't believe how many words Chinese had borrowed from Japanese for the past one hundred years or so, and the number is still increasing especially in Taiwan...

Japanese loans include words as common as 社会

手続 tse-tsuzuki

You've got an extra "s". It's te-tsuzuki (I'm having a hard time with this being romanized...). Is it in the dictionary like that?

@xiaocai

Wow. That's quite the list!

Yes, it is! I don't really know any Japanese, so I hadn't noticed that romanisation wasn't right. Thanks for pointing that out

You might enjoy reading this: http://www.languagehat.com/archives/004128.php