敢
gǎn HSK3

to dare

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approved by Peter Olson · Mar 2, 2026, 04:30 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Mar 2, 2026, 04:30 AM

fixed strokes for traditional variant

Changed fields: fragmentsTrad

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
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
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
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkamX[k]ˤamʔ dare

Sources

Character origin
zi.tools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