Wednesday 26 December 2018

干 | gān

In Mandarin Chinese, (Pinyin: gān 🔊) is an adjective meaning “dry”, “dried-up”, “empty”, “exhausted”, “drained” and so on.

Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that is a

depiction of a forked stick or thick bar, one functioning as a shield and employed by being thrust or pressed against a combatant in defense. Dry, ebb, draw/drain off and empty (a glass) are borrowed meanings.

Borrowed from where? Well, is a simplified form of the traditional character , which is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic (gàn 🔊) and semantic . Howell writes that

The relevant bronzeware inscription form is (rise) + an element combining sun/day and a pennant/banner → the sun likened to a flag that rises high in and adheres to the sky → high and bright skydry (← air/water that rises due to heat).

Some compounds of include

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using some yummy 葡萄干.

More photos related to raisins and other dried stuff @ Shutterstock.