任

Stroke order

任 (Kangxi radical 9, 人+4, 6 strokes, cangjie input 人竹土 (OHG), four-corner 2221₄, composition ⿰亻壬)

• 𠲏, 姙, 𢂧, 㤛, 拰, 㳝, 𤞘, 栣, 𭴞, 𭹆, 𥆂, 𥙛, 秹, 袵, 絍(𫟃), 𦣨, 䛘(𬣯), 𫏊, 𨠲, 銋, 餁
• 𨿂, 𪀼, 𠲉, 荏, 䇮, 𫕤, 𤶄, 凭, 𡜟, 𫶭, 恁, 栠, 𤇲, 㶵, 𠄶, 𬓧, 䋕, 𦚮, 𧙨, 賃(赁), 𨉃, 䣸, 𨿃, 𩷀, 鵀(𬸊)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 94, character 24
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 416
• Dae Jaweon: page 200, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 122, character 6
• Unihan data for U+4EFB

Historical forms of the character 任
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
Bronze inscriptions b12353 b12354 Small seal script s05801 Transcribed ancient scripts L33730 L33731 L12273 L12274 L12275 L12276 L12277 L12278 L12279
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 *njɯm, *njɯms): semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 壬 (OC *l̥ʰeːŋʔ, *njɯm) – to carry on a shoulder pole.

Note that its phonetic part 壬 (OC *njɯm) may be the graphical representation of 任, depicting a shoulder pole rotated by 90 degrees.

Cognate with 妊 (OC *njɯms, “pregnant”) and Tibetan སྣོམ་པ (snom pa, “to take; seize; hold”). May also be cognate with Proto-Kam-Sui *ȵam¹ (“to hold”) and Old Khmer nāṃ (“to carry”) (Schuessler, 2007).

任

1. to carry on a shoulder pole; to carry
2. to bear; to endure; to put up with
3. to take charge of; to assume the post of; to be in charge of
4. to trust to; to rely on; to believe; to guarantee
5. to appoint; to assign someone to a post
6. to indulge; to be self-indulgent; to allow
   • 放任  ―  fàngrèn  ―  to indulge
7. load; burden; luggage; baggage
8. duty; responsibility; obligation
   • 任務／任务  ―  rènwù  ―  task; mission
9. tenure; term of office; incumbency
   • 現任／现任  ―  xiànrèn  ―  to be currently serving as; incumbent
   • 前任  ―  qiánrèn  ―  predecessor
   • 繼任／继任  ―  jìrèn  ―  successor
10. office; post; position
11. officeholder; postholder
12. even if; even though
13. no matter how; regardless of
14. Classifier for terms of office.

任

1. (historical) an ancient woman's rank of nobility
2. (historical) an ancient music of the southern indigenous people
3. ^† Alternative form of 壬 (rén, “artful; fawning”)
4. a surname

   任弼時／任弼时  ―  Rén Bìshí  ―  Ren Bishi (military and political leader in the early Chinese Communist Party)

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji)

1. responsibility
2. duty
3. term
4. entrust to
5. appoint

• Go-on: にん (nin, 任)^{←にん (nin, 任, historical)←にむ (nimu, 任, ancient)}
• Kan-on: じん (jin, 任)^{←じん (zin, 任, historical)←じむ (zimu, 任, ancient)}
• Kun: たえる (taeru, 任える)、まかす (makasu, 任す, Jōyō)、まかせる (makaseru, 任せる, Jōyō)、まき (maki, 任)、まく (maku, 任く)、まけ (make, 任)、まま (mama, 任)
• Nanori: さ (sa, 任)、たえ (tae, 任)、たか (taka, 任)、たかし (takashi, 任)、ただ (tada, 任)、たね (tane, 任)、たもつ (tamotsu, 任)、と (to, 任)、とう (tō, 任)、ひで (hide, 任)

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

• IPA^(key):

任(にん) • (nin) 

1. duty, responsibility, obligation

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

• IPA^(key):

任(まき) • (maki) 

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

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

• IPA^(key):

任(まけ) • (make) 

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

任 (eumhun 맡길 임 (matgil im))

1. hanja form^? of 임 (“duty; responsibility”)

任: Hán Việt readings: nhậm^[1][2][3], nhiệm^[1][3], nhâm^[3]
任: Nôm readings: nhậm^[1][2][3], nhằm^[1][2][3], nhiệm^[1][4], nhầm^[2][4], nhẩm^[3][4], nhăm^[3], nhặm^[3], vững^[3]

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