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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

犯

fàn
to infringe on; to attack; to encroach
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 犬
  • 5 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *bomʔ): semantic 犬 + phonetic 𢎘 (hàn).

"To pass over" > "to offend against, oppose". Compare 氾.

This character originally had bilabial nasal (*-m) final in Old and Middle Chinese, but had undergone dissimilation (from bilabial plosive *b-) to become *-n in most dialects. However, there are still some dialects that retain this feature, such as Meixian and Teochew dialect. Similar dissimilation happened in 帆 and 風.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese犬 “dog”
  • soundChinese𢎘 “flower bud”

Words built on it: 犯罪

Meanings

character
  1. to infringe on; to attack; to encroach
  2. to commit (crime); to violate
  3. criminal; offender; culprit
  4. to happen; to break out (usually something wrong or bad)
  5. to brave; to face; to withstand
  6. to be worth; to merit; to deserve; to be worthy of

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

犯：侵也。从犬巳（段註改為㔾）聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 侵害、干擾、沖撞。 例：侵犯、冒犯
  2. 牴觸、違背。 例：犯法、犯規
  3. 發作。 例：他的老毛病又犯了。
  4. 做錯事的人。 例：主犯、罪犯、嫌犯

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

How 犯 was written 字形演變

  1. 犯 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 犯 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 犯 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: 犯