乾

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

乾 (Kangxi radical 5, 乙+10, 11 strokes, cangjie input 十十人弓 (JJON), four-corner 4841₇, composition ⿰龺乞)

Derived characters

• 𠼳, 墘, 𢠥, 㨴, 漧, 𨼃, 𤍯, 𭢇, 𨫬, 𫙱, 𨝌, 𨝝

Related characters

• 干 (Simplified form when used as an adjective in Chinese)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 84, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 204
• Dae Jaweon: page 172, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 56, character 10
• Unihan data for U+4E7E

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 乾
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Small seal script s10941 s10942 Transcribed ancient scripts L32029 L32030 L32031 L32032 L07189 L07190 L07191 L07192 L07193 L07194 L07195 L07196 L07197
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kaːn, *ɡran) : phonetic 倝 (OC *kaːns) + semantic 乙.

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kan (“to dry; to dry up”). Cognate with Burmese ခန်း (hkan:, “to dry up; to evaporate”).

The sense “lacking sweetness” is a semantic loan from French sec or English dry.

Pronunciation

Definitions

乾

1. dry; moistureless; waterless; arid

   我喉嚨很乾。／我喉咙很干。  ―  Wǒ hóulóng hěn gān.  ―  My throat feels dry.

   • 自動提示補水功能可令家用電蒸爐也不會有煲乾水引發火警的危險。 [Literary Cantonese, trad.]
     自动提示补水功能可令家用电蒸炉也不会有煲干水引发火警的危险。 [Literary Cantonese, simp.]

     From: 2015, 紀曉華《水哥廚房：蒸．好生活》

     zi⁶ dung⁶ tai⁴ si⁶ bou² seoi² gung¹ nang⁴ ho² ling⁶ gaa¹ jung⁶ din⁶ zing¹ lou⁴ jaa⁵ bat¹ wui⁵ jau⁵ bou¹ gon¹ seoi² jan⁵ faat³ fo² ging² dik¹ ngai⁴ him².

     The ability to automatically remind people to add more water may result in electric household steamers no longer carrying the risk of triggering fire alarms when they become empty.

2. to dry; to exhaust
3. ^† to neglect; to snub
4. (colloquial) to drain one's glass; bottoms up
5. dried up; exhausted; drained
6. (of voice) dry and coarse
7. dried-up food
8. adopted; adoptive; foster
9. in vain; for nothing
10. falsely; superficially
11. not sweet; lacking sweetness

Synonyms

• (dry):

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “dry”): 濕／湿 (shī)

Compounds

Etymology 2

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m-ka-n (“heaven; sky; sun”). Cognate with Tibetan མཁའ (mkha'), ནམ་མཁའ (nam mkha', “sky; heaven”) and Namuyi nɛ⁵⁵ ŋkhɛ³³ mu³³ (“sky”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

乾

1. first of the eight trigrams (bagua) used in Taoist cosmology, represented by the symbol ☰
2. first hexagram of the I Ching, represented by the symbol ䷀
3. ^† (figurative) sky; heaven

   乾道  ―  qiándào  ―  ways of heaven; natural law

4. ^† (figurative) emperor; monarch
5. ^† (figurative) sun
6. ^† (figurative) northwest
7. ^† (figurative) man; male
8. a surname

Compounds

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Definitions

乾

1. (Min) Alternative form of 焦 (“dry”)

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. northwest
2. dehydrate
3. arid
4. drought
5. imbibe
6. paradise
7. the emperor

Readings

• Go-on: かん (kan, Jōyō); げん (gen)
• Kan-on: かん (kan, Jōyō); けん (ken)
• Kun: かわく (kawaku, 乾く, Jōyō); かわかす (kawakasu, 乾かす, Jōyō); いぬい (inui, 乾); かせる (kaseru, 乾せる); からびる (karabiru, 乾びる); かわき (kawaki, 乾き); ひ (hi, 乾); ふ (fu, 乾); ほし (hoshi, 乾し); ほす (hosu, 乾す)
• Nanori: いぬい (inui); かみ (kami); きみ (kimi); すすむ (susumu); たけし (takeshi); つとむ (tsutomu); ふ (fu)

Alternative forms

• 乹

Compounds

Etymology 1

From 戌(いぬ) (inu, “10 o'clock direction”) + 亥(い) (i, “11 o'clock direction”).

Orthographic borrowing from Chinese 乾／干 (“northwest”, Etymology 2).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) いぬい (Heiban – )
• (Tokyo) いぬ​い (Nakadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

乾(いぬい) • (inui) ^{←いぬゐ (inwi)?}

1. (obsolete) northwest

Proper noun

乾(いぬい) • (Inui) ^{←いぬゐ (inwi)?}

1. a surname

Etymology 2

From Middle Chinese 乾 (MC kan).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Affix

乾(かん) • (kan) 

1. dry

Compounds

Etymology 3

From Middle Chinese 乾 (MC gjen).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) け​ん (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Affix

乾(けん) • (ken) 

1. the sky

Compounds

References

Korean

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 乾 (MC gjen, “sky”).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

乾

Wikisource

乾 (eumhun 하늘 건 (haneul geon))

1. Hanja form^? of 건 (“sky”).

   Synonym: 天 (천 (cheon))

   Antonym: 地 (지 (ji)): earth

2. Hanja form^? of 건 (“☷ or the first of the eight trigrams (bagua) (☰☱☲☳☴☵☶☷ or 팔괘 (八卦, palgwae, “Bagua”))”).

   Antonym: 坤 (곤 (gon))

3. Hanja form^? of 건 (“king”).

Compounds

Etymology 2

From a corrupted or unorthodox reading. The original reading is 간 (gan) based on Middle Chinese 乾 (MC kan, “dry”).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Hanja

乾 (eumhun 마를 건 (mareul geon))

1. (prefix) Hanja form^? of 건 (“dry”).

   Antonym: 濕 (습 (seup)): wet

2. Hanja form^? of 건 (“moistureless; waterless; arid”).
3. Hanja form^? of 건 (“in vain; for nothing; superficially”).

Compounds

See also

• 팔괘 (八卦, palgwae, “Bagua”)

7+0=111+000 (U+2630)*	☰	乾	天	sky
6+1=110+001 (U+2631)	☱	兌	澤	marsh
5+2=101+010 (U+2632)	☲	離	火	fire
4+3=100+011 (U+2633)	☳	震	雷	thunder
3+4=011+100 (U+2634)	☴	巽	風	wind
2+5=010+101 (U+2635)	☵	坎	水	water
1+6=001+110 (U+2636)	☶	艮	山	mountain
0+7=000+111 (U+2637)	☷	坤	地	earth

Usage notes

Decimal pair = Binary pair (Codepoint). (The solid bar "—" of the Trigrams may be assigned to the binary number "1", while the split bar "--" to "0".)

References

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

Vietnamese

Han character

乾: Hán Nôm readings: kiền, cạn, can, càn, khan, gàn

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Nom Foundation