Chinese Character Wiki
敢

gǎn

to dare

Original meaning: 

to hunt; to pursue

Depicts a hand holding a hunting weapon (攵) catching a wild boar (豕). 甘 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to hunt; to pursue". The meaning later shifted to "brave" and "to dare".

Components
豕 iconic component

豕  Iconic component

shǐ

  

pig

Depicts a wild boar.

甘 sound component

甘  Sound component

gān

  

sweetness

攵 iconic component

攵  Iconic component

pū

  

tap

攵 is a component form of 攴. Depicts a hand holding a hunting weapon.

Evolution

敢 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
敢 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
敢 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
敢 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

敢  

gǎn

to dare, venture; bold, brave; to dare; daring; (polite) may I venture

Most common words with 敢
Freq.
Word
Meaning

敢

to dare

勇敢

brave

敢于

to dare to

竟敢

to have the impertinence

胆敢

to dare (negative connotation)

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (1 verified)

嚴 橄 憨 瞰 阚 闞 澉 撖

Deleted component in 1 character (1 verified)

严

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ˤamʔ

kamX

gǎn

dare


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 70.3828% of movies

617th most common character in movies

795th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

11

Unicode

U+6562

Shuowen

“，進取也。从，古聲。，籀文；，古文。”


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