Definitions

gàn (archaic) water leaking into a boat; historically, the name of a river in Jiangxi; (neologism) to fuck (euphemistic variant of 幹|干[gàn])

Etymology phono-semantic

water

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

is a phono-semantic compound originally denoting water seeping into a boat or churning mud in water. Its left side is the water radical , which marks the semantic field of liquids, and its right side functions as the phonetic, although pronunciation has shifted away from that of . These original meanings are now obsolete in daily use. Today, is best known as the name of the Gan River in Jiangxi province, and it is also a fairly common surname and given name character.

Etymology Hide

Bronze etymology image
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn (~700 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Seal etymology image
Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Seal etymology image
Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern