函

函 (Kangxi radical 17, 凵+6, 8 strokes, cangjie input 山弓水 (UNE) or 弓山水 (NUE), four-corner 1077₂, composition ⿶凵⿻丂⿱丷八)

• 𠗙, 㖤, 𫱂, 𢃗, 𢔈, 𭡝, 涵, 𨺂, 㮀, 𪻱, 𦜆, 𭄃, 𥓞, 䘶, 蜬, 𧖾, 𬢲, 䤴, 𣣖, 顄(𱂰)
• 菡, 䈄, 䨡, 𣼇

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 135, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1826
• Dae Jaweon: page 303, character 10
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 309, character 9
• Unihan data for U+51FD

Historical forms of the character 函
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Originally 圅, a pictogram (象形) – an upside-down arrow stored inside a box with one or two handles.

函

1. ^† to include
2. ^† box
3. (formal) letter (Classifier: 個／个 m)

   發函／发函  ―  fāhán  ―  to send a letter

• → Vietnamese: hòm

• “函”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

1. a box-shaped receptacle, e.g. a coin bank or letter box (e.g. 銭函, 投函する)
2. to insert (cf. 入れる, 容れる)
3. a suit of armor (more commonly 鎧)

• Go-on: ごん (gon)
• Kan-on: かん (kan)
• Kun: はこ (hako, 函)、いれる (ireru, 函れる)、よろい (yoroi)

• 函(はこ)館(だて) (Hakodate)

From Middle Chinese 函 (MC hom|heam).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

函

Wikisource

函 (eumhun 함 함 (ham ham))

1. hanja form^? of 함 (“box”)

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

函: Hán Nôm readings: hòm, hàm

• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)