任

See also: 仟 and 件

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Historical forms of the character 任
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script
Bronze inscriptions b12353 b12354 Large seal script L33730 L33731 L12273 L12274 L12275 L12276 L12277 L12278 L12279 Small seal script s05801
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 (large seal) and Xu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *njɯm, *njɯms): semantic 亻 ‎(“person”) + phonetic 壬 ‎(OC *l̥ʰeːŋʔ, *njɯm) – a person doing their duty.

Han character

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

1. trust to, rely on, appoint
2. to bear, duty, office
3. allow
4. a Chinese surname

Derived characters

• 賃 (赁)

References

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

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		任

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): rèn (ren⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄖㄣˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jam⁶
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): yim / ngim
• Min Nan (POJ): līm / jīm

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: rèn
    • Zhuyin: ㄖㄣˋ
    • Wade-Giles: jên⁴
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: renn
    • IPA ^(key): /ʐən⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: jam⁶
    • Yale: yahm
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jam⁶
    • IPA ^(key): /jɐm²²/
• Hakka
  • (Northern Sixian, incl. Miaoli)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: yim / ngim
    • Hakka Romanization System: im / ngim
    • Hagfa Pinyim: yim⁴ / ngim⁴
    • IPA: /im⁵⁵/, /ɲim⁵⁵/
  • (Southern Sixian, incl. Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: yim / ngim
    • Hakka Romanization System: (r)im / ngim
    • Hagfa Pinyim: yim⁴ / ngim⁴
    • IPA: /(j)im⁵⁵/, /ɲim⁵⁵/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Taipei, Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: līm
    • Tâi-lô: līm
    • Phofsit Daibuun: lim
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /lim⁴¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /lim³³/
    • IPA (Xiamen): /lim²²/
  • (Hokkien: Kaohsiung, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: jīm
    • Tâi-lô: jīm
    • Phofsit Daibuun: jim
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /d͡ʑim³³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /d͡ʑim²²/

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• Dialectal data▼

Variety	Location	edit 任 (姓任)	edit 任 (責任)
Mandarin	Beijing	/ʐən³⁵/	/ʐən⁵¹/
	Harbin	/ʐən²⁴/	/ʐən⁵³/
	Tianjin	/in⁴⁵/ /ʐən⁴⁵/	/in⁵³/ /ʐən⁵³/
	Jinan	/ʐẽ⁴²/	/ʐẽ²¹/
	Qingdao	/iə̃⁴²/	/iə̃⁴²/
	Zhengzhou	/ʐən⁴²/	/ʐən³¹²/
	Xi'an	/ʐẽ²⁴/	/ʐẽ⁴⁴/
	Xining	/ʐə̃²⁴/	/ʐə̃²¹³/
	Yinchuan	/ʐəŋ⁵³/	/ʐəŋ¹³/
	Lanzhou	/ʐə̃n⁵³/	/ʐə̃n¹³/
	Ürümqi	/ʐɤŋ⁵¹/	/ʐɤŋ²¹³/
	Wuhan	/nən²¹³/	/nən³⁵/
	Chengdu	/zən³¹/	/zən¹³/
	Guiyang	/zen²¹/	/zen²¹³/
	Kunming	/ʐə̃³¹/	/ʐə̃²¹²/
	Nanjing	/ʐən²⁴/	/ʐən⁴⁴/
	Hefei	/ʐən⁵⁵/	/ʐən⁵³/
Jin	Taiyuan	/zəŋ¹¹/	/zəŋ⁴⁵/
	Pingyao	/ʐəŋ¹³/	/ʐəŋ³⁵/
	Hohhot	/ʐə̃ŋ³¹/	/ʐə̃ŋ⁵⁵/
Wu	Shanghai	/ȵiŋ²³/ /zəŋ²³/	/zəŋ²³/
	Suzhou	/ȵin¹³/	/zən³¹/
	Hangzhou	/zen²¹³/	/zen¹³/
	Wenzhou	/ȵaŋ³¹/	/zaŋ²²/
Hui	Shexian	/iʌ̃²²/	/iʌ̃²²/
	Tunxi	/ian¹¹/	/ian¹¹/
Xiang	Changsha	/ʐən¹³/	/ʐən⁵⁵/
	Xiangtan	/in⁵⁵/	/in⁵⁵/
Gan	Nanchang		/lɨn²¹/
Hakka	Meixian	/im⁵³/	/im⁵³/
	Taoyuan		/im⁵⁵/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/jɐm²¹/	/jɐm²²/
	Nanning	/jɐm²²/	/jɐm²²/
	Hong Kong	/jɐm²¹/	/jɐm²²/
Min	Xiamen (Min Nan)	/lim³⁵/	/lim²²/
	Fuzhou (Min Dong)	/iŋ⁵³/	/ɛiŋ²⁴²/
	Jian'ou (Min Bei)	/iŋ²¹/	/iŋ⁴⁴/
	Shantou (Min Nan)	/zim³⁵/	/zim³⁵/ /zim³¹/
	Haikou (Min Nan)	/zim³⁵/	/zim³³/

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• Middle Chinese: /ȵiɪm/, /ȵiɪm^H/▼

Rime
Character	任	任
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	日 (38)	日 (38)
Final (韻)	侵 (139)	侵 (139)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open
Division (等)	III	III
Fanqie	如林切	汝鴆切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ȵiɪm/	/ȵiɪmH/
Pan Wuyun	/ȵim/	/ȵimH/
Shao Rongfen	/ȵʑjem/	/ȵʑjemH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ȵim/	/ȵimH/
Li Rong	/ȵiəm/	/ȵiəmH/
Wang Li	/ȵʑĭĕm/	/ȵʑĭĕmH/
Bernard Karlgren	/ȵʑi̯əm/	/ȵʑi̯əmH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	rén	rèn

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*n[ə]m-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*njɯm/, /*njɯms/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	任
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	rèn
Middle Chinese	‹ nyimH ›
Old Chinese	/*n[ə]m-s/
English	burden; charge (n.)
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	任	任
Reading #	1/2	2/2
No.	10808	10823
Phonetic component	壬	壬
Rime group	侵	侵
Rime subdivision	1	1
Corresponding MC rime	任	妊
Old Chinese	/*njɯm/	/*njɯms/

Definitions

任

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

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Japanese

Kanji

任

(grade 5 “Kyōiku” kanji)

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

Readings

• Goon: にん (nin), にむ (nimu)
• Kan’on: じん (jin), じむ (jimu) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kun: まかせる (makaseru), になう (ninau), たえる (taeru)

Compounds

責任 (せきにん) ‎(sekinin) 委任 (いにん) ‎(inin) 解任 (かいにん) ‎(kainin)

無責任 (むせきにん) ‎(musekinin) 専任 (せんにん) ‎(sennin) 信任 (しんにん) ‎(shinnin)

任命 (にんめい) ‎(ninmei) 任務 (にんむ) ‎(ninmu)

Noun

任 ‎(hiragana にん, romaji nin)

1. duty, responsibility, obligation

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Korean

Hanja

任 • ‎(im) (hangeul 임, revised yim, McCune-Reischauer im)

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

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Vietnamese

Han character

任 (nhậm, nhẩm, nhầm, nhiệm, nhâm, nhăm, nhặm, vững)

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

References

• Nom Foundation