鼾

鼾 (Kangxi radical 209, 鼻+3, 17 strokes, cangjie input 竹中一十 (HLMJ), four-corner 2124₀, composition ⿰鼻干)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1530, character 8
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 48505
• Dae Jaweon: page 2066, character 24
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4779, character 7
• Unihan data for U+9F3E

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *qʰaːn, *ɢaːns) : semantic 鼻 + phonetic 干 (OC *kaːn).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hal (“to snore”). Compare Tibetan ཧལ (hal, “to pant; to wheeze; to snort; to snore”).

鼾

1. (literary or Southern Min) to snore
2. snore; snoring

   打鼾  ―  dǎhān  ―  to snore

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

鼾

1. (Hokkien) the sound of snoring; to snore

• “Entry #12487”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

(Hyōgai kanji)

• Go-on: かん (kan)、がん (gan)
• Kan-on: かん (kan)
• Kun: いびき (ibiki, 鼾)、くつち (kutsuchi, 鼾)

From Middle Chinese 鼾 (MC xan|hanH, “snoring”).

Only found in compounds. Not used in isolation.

• IPA^(key):

鼾(かん) • (kan) 

1. snoring

Originally a compound of 息 (i, “breath, breathing”) +‎ 引き (hiki, “pulling, drawing”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 引く hiku “to pull, to draw”).^[1][2] The hiki changes to biki as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

• (Tokyo) いびき (Odaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

鼾(いびき) • (ibiki) 

1. snoring, a snore

鼾(いびき)する • (ibiki suru) suru (stem 鼾(いびき)し (ibiki shi), past 鼾(いびき)した (ibiki shita))

1. to snore

The verb sense “to snore” is more commonly expressed using the verbal phrases 鼾を掻く (ibiki o kaku, literally “to make a snoring sound”) or 鼾を立てる (ibiki o tateru, literally “to raise a snore, to put up a snore”).

• 鼾(いび)く (ibiku) (rare, probably obsolete)

Apparently the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of obsolete verb 鼾つ (kutsutsu, “to sleep while snoring”, possibly onomatopoeic).^[1]

The epilepsy sense may have arisen from how one's breathing may be spastic and vaguely similar to snoring when suffering an epileptic seizure.

However, the conjugation of this putative verb is unknown, and it is only encountered in what would be the nominalized 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of kutsuchi.^[1] This leaves open the possibility of alternative origins:

• May be a compound of 口 (kutsu, “mouth”, the bound form of modern 口 (kuchi), only found in compounds) +‎ 風 (chi, “wind”, from the way that snoring often happens when breathing through the mouth, or from the way that an epileptic seizure may involve spastic breathing vaguely similar to snoring).
• The epilepsy sense may be a compound of 口 (kutsu, “mouth”, the bound form of modern 口 (kuchi), only found in compounds) +‎ 血 (chi, “blood”, from the common occurrence of biting one's tongue during an epileptic seizure).

• IPA^(key):

鼾(くつち) • (kutsuchi) 

1. (archaic, rare) snoring
2. (archaic, rare) epilepsy

• (epilepsy): 癲癇(てんかん) (tenkan)

鼾 • (han) (hangeul 한, McCune–Reischauer han, Yale han)

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

鼾: Hán Nôm readings: han

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