hán
envelop, case
Original meaning:
quiver, arrow case
Pictograph of an arrow inside a quiver. Based on the original meaning "quiver, arrow case". The meaning later shifted to "case", "box", "envelop" and "letter".
Components
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)Regular script
ModernMost common words with 函
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
invitation letter | ||
case | ||
function (math.) | ||
letter | ||
to teach by correspondence |
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*Cə-m-kˤ[ə]m | hom | hán | envelop, contain |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 2.5148% of movies
2846th most common character in movies
1950th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 8 |
Unicode | U+51FD |
Shuowen | “圅,舌也。象形,舌體。从,亦聲。肣,俗圅从肉、今。” |
Sources
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