Definitions

gān crucible; earthenware, pottery

Etymology phono-semantic

earth

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

refers to a crucible, an earthen vessel designed to withstand high temperatures for melting metals or chemical processes. It is a phono-semantic compound: the left-side radical (tǔ, 'earth') indicates the clay or ceramic material, while the right-side component (gān) provides the pronunciation. The character appears almost exclusively in the compound 坩埚 (gānguō, 'crucible'), and its usage is limited to specialized laboratory and metallurgical contexts.