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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

彈

dàn
to shoot (with a slingshot); to catapult; to eject
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 弓
  • 15 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *daːn, *daːns): semantic 弓 + phonetic 單 (OC *taːn, *djan, *djanʔ, *djans).

; "to shoot pellets at; to play (a stringed instrument)"

: Pronunciation 2 ("bow for shooting pellets" > "pellet") is a general derivation of pronunciation 1 "to shoot pellets at".

: See also 憚 (OC *daːns, “to fear”), to which it has been alternatively linked with.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese弓 “bow (weapon) (Classifier: 張／张)”
  • soundChinese單 “single; individual; solitary”

Meanings

character
  1. to shoot (with a slingshot); to catapult; to eject
  2. to flick; to fluff; to strike
  3. to play (a stringed musical instrument)
  4. to accuse; to criticise; to expose
  5. to spring; to leap; to bounce
  6. bouncy; elastic

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

彈：行丸也。从弓單聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 利用彈力將物品發射或拋出。 例：彈射、彈跳 ◎
  2. 利用手指彈擊物體。 例：彈指、彈耳朵
  3. 以撥或按的方式來演奏弦樂器。 例：彈吉他、彈鋼琴、彈琵琶
  4. 利用弦狀器具使纖維變鬆軟。 例：彈棉花、彈羊毛
  5. 具有彈性的。 例：彈力、彈簧
  6. 糾劾、檢舉。 例：彈劾、糾彈

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

How 彈 was written 字形演變

  1. 彈 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 彈 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 彈 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

  • 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: 彈