Definitions

zǎn dual pronoun: "you and I", "we two"; surname

Etymology

About

is primarily a surname and occasionally a phonetic loan for dialectal pronouns meaning "I" or "we", similar to . The character combines (sun/time) at the bottom with the phonetic at the top. Historical texts sometimes use it for periods of time, hinting at an original temporal meaning before it became almost exclusively a family name and regional phonetic substitute.