源etymfun
About

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

肯

/kʰən²¹⁴/
meat attached to the bone; tendon; sinew
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 6
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 肉
  • 8 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow
Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.
Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): abbreviated 冎 (“bone”) + 肉 (“meat”) – meat attached to the bone. Originally 肎 or 𦘫; the top component was later corrupted to 止.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese冎 “bone”
  • ideaChinese肉 “meat; flesh”

Words built on it: 肯定

Meanings

character
  1. meat attached to the bone; tendon; sinew
  2. to be willing to; to be ready to
  3. to consent to; to permit; to agree
  4. how could it be that
  5. to be only
  6. Used in transcription.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 答應、同意。 例：不知媽媽肯不肯讓我出去玩？
  2. 願意。 例：不肯虛心學習，就難有進步。

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

How 肯 was written 字形演變

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