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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

慢

màn
slow; sluggish
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 心
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *mroːns): semantic 忄 (“heart”) + phonetic 曼 (OC *moːn, *mons) – a character trait or behavior (of the heart), sluggish. Note that 曼 also means “long, extended”, so connotations of “take a long time, leisurely, sluggish”.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese心 “heart (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 個／个 c; 粒 mn)”
  • soundChinese曼 “long; extended; drawn-out”

Words built on it: 慢慢

Meanings

character
  1. slow; sluggish
  2. rude; proud; disrespectful
  3. to be behind
  4. slack; sluggish; remiss; idle
  5. late

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

慢：惰也。从心曼聲。一曰慢，不畏也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 速度低緩的。與「快」相對。 例：慢車、動作很慢　◎
  2. 稍緩。 例：且慢生氣，先聽聽他怎麼說。
  3. 態度冷漠、不禮貌的。 例：傲慢、輕慢、怠慢
  4. 宋詞的體制。長調稱為「慢」，以調子長、聲音緩慢而得名。如聲聲慢、揚州慢、木蘭花慢

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

How 慢 was written 字形演變

  1. 慢 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 慢 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 慢