敢 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gǎn HSK3

to dare

Original meaning: to hunt, to pursue

Depicts a hand holding a hunting weapon (攵) to catch 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

shǐ pig

Depicts a wild boar.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 豕 than it was in ancient scripts.

甘 Sound component

gān sweetness

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 甘 than it was in ancient scripts.

攵 Iconic component

pū tap

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

橄憨瞰阚澉闞撖嚴

Deleted (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kamX	[k]ˤamʔ	dare

說文解字

《說文》：“，進取也。从，古聲。，籀文；，古文。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.331-332中華語文知識庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)