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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

干

/kän⁵⁵/
to concern; to be implicated in; implication
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • radical 干
  • 3 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Pictogram (象形) of a shield with feather ornaments on top; in some versions in oracle bones, the central and flat part of the shield can be seen as 回.

As an alternative, it is possible 干 and 單 are variant forms of the same character in oracle bone script due to their similar shapes and its appearance in the original forms of 敢. Hence, 干 would depict a bifurcated hunting weapon, not a shield. But 單 has two dots on top that depict two stones, while these two dots are absent in 干.

Also borrowed phonetically as a simplification of 乾 (dry) and 幹. See also 盾 (the pictogram of another shield) and its possible differentiation 古.

The interpretation that links this pictogram to a pestle is folk etymology. Unrelated to 午, which however represents a pestle.

; “shield“

Sino-Tibetan. Cognate with 扞 (OC *ɡaːns, “to shield; to protect”), 閈 (OC *ɡaːns, “gate”), 捍 (OC *ɡaːns, *ɡraːnʔ, “to shield, ward off”). Compare Tibetan འགལ ('gal, “to go against, to violate, to contradict”), Burmese ကာ (ka, “shield; to shield; to block”).

; “group (of people); number; amount; (how) much”

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese乾 “dry; moistureless; waterless; arid”
    • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*kan “to dry; to dry up”
    • soundChinese倝 “bright”
      • meaningChinese旦 “early morning; dawn”
        • meaningChinese日 “Sun”
        • soundChinese丁 “the fourth of the ten heavenly stems”
      • soundChinese㫃 “appearance of flags flying”
    • meaningChinese乙 “The second of the ten heavenly stems (天干 (tiāngān))”
    • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*m-ka-n “heaven; sky; sun”
  • simplified fromChinese幹 “main part of something; body; trunk”
    • meaningChinese木 “tree; woody plant”
  • partChinese一 “one”
  • partChinese十 “ten”

Related: Tibetan འགལ, Burmese ကာ

Words built on it: 汗

Meanings

character
  1. to concern; to be implicated in; implication
  2. a shield
  3. to request; to ask
  4. to offend; to encroach on
  5. to interfere; to intervene
  6. bank; edge of water bodies

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

干：犯也。从反入，从一。凡干之屬皆从干。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 冒犯、觸犯。 例：干犯
  2. 強行參預。 例：干涉、干政、干預
  3. 相關、關聯。 例：相干、干連、干係
  4. 求取、營求。 例：干祿、干求、干譽
  5. 經過脫水加工製造的乾燥食品。通「乾」。 例：筍干、菜干、豆腐干
  6. 包含十個用來標記先後次序的符號，即甲、乙、丙、丁、戊、己、庚、辛、壬、癸。 例：干支　△天干

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 干 was written 字形演變

  1. 干 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 干 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 干 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 干 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 干 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 干 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 干