闲散
xián​sǎn

idle

闲 xián fence Simplified

A wooden fence 木 with a door 门

Components

门
门 Meaning component
mén, men door
木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

娴痫鹇

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

散 sàn, sǎn scatter

Originally written as 𢽳, which depicted trees (林) being struck (攵) to make things fall off the tree and scatter. The character 斝 was sometimes confused with the character 散, and a corruption of it visually similar to 月 was added.

Components

𢽳
𢽳 SoundMeaning component
sàn scatter
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𢽳 than it was in ancient scripts.
斝
斝 Remnant component
jiǎ small jade wine cup

Modern form looks like 月.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

撒霰馓饊

Meaning (1)

撒

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsanX[s]ˤa[n]ʔ scattered (adj.)
sanHmə-sˤa[n]ʔ-s scatter (v.t.)

說文解字

《說文》：“，雜肉也。从肉，聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.345-346
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

閒 jiān, jiàn liesure Traditional

The moon 月 seen through a door 門; night-time

Components

門
門 Meaning component
mén, men door
月
月 Meaning component
yuè, yue moon

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

癇蕑

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthɛnN-kˤre[n]idle
Zhengzhangɡreːn
Unicodegɛn
hɛn

說文解字

隟也。从門从月。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)