About
戆 is an adjective describing foolishness, simple-mindedness, or stubborn bluntness. The heart radical 心 at its base signifies a mental or emotional state. Its traditional form, 戇, used the complex phonetic component 贛 above 忄 to provide pronunciation. In the simplified character, 贛 was replaced by 赣, creating the modern 戆. This significantly reduced the stroke count while preserving the original semantic and phonetic structure. The character is often used in spoken dialects to convey a mix of obstinacy and naive honesty.
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