劍

See also: 剑

Translingual

Traditional	劍
Shinjitai	剣
Simplified	剑

Han character

劍 (Kangxi radical 18, 刀+13, 15 strokes, cangjie input 人人中弓 (OOLN), four-corner 8280₀, composition ⿰僉刂)

Derived characters

• 𠐘, 𡃍, 𤑯, 𤢾, 𧁴, 𣋽

Descendants

• 剣 (In Japanese shinjitai)
• 剑 (In simplified Chinese)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 144, character 45
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2228
• Dae Jaweon: page 326, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 358, character 10
• Unihan data for U+528D

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Chinese

trad.		劍
simp.		剑
alternative forms		劒 劔 鐱／𲈀 釼 剣 劒 劔 鐱／𲈀 釼 剣 剱

劍: A Jian with 鞘 (qiào, “scabbard”).

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 劍
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

Characters in the same phonetic series (僉) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
厱	*raːm, *kʰreːm, *kʰlam
歛	*qʰlaːm
臉	*ɡ·reːmʔ, *skʰlam, *kramʔ
醶	*ɡr·reːmʔ, *skʰraːmʔ
鹼	*kreːmʔ, *skʰlam
薟	*ɡ·ram, *ɡ·ramʔ, *qʰram
匳	*ɡ·ram
獫	*ɡ·ram, *ɡ·ramʔ, *ɡ·rams, *qʰramʔ
蘞	*ɡ·ram, *ɡ·ramʔ, *qʰlam
籢	*ɡ·ram
斂	*ɡ·ramʔ, *ɡ·rams
瀲	*ɡ·ramʔ, *ɡ·rams
撿	*ɡ·ramʔ, *kramʔ
羷	*ɡ·ramʔ
殮	*ɡ·rams
簽	*skʰlam
僉	*skʰlam
憸	*skʰlam, *skʰlamʔ, *sqʰlam, *qʰramʔ
譣	*skʰlam, *qʰramʔ
檢	*kramʔ
瞼	*kramʔ
儉	*ɡramʔ
顩	*ŋramʔ, *rlɯmʔ, *kʰrɯmʔ
嬐	*ŋramʔ
嶮	*ŋramʔ, *hŋramʔ
噞	*ŋramʔ, *ŋrams
驗	*ŋrams
險	*qʰramʔ
劒	*kams
劍	*kams
𩏩	*qʰam

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kams) : phonetic 僉 (OC *skʰlam) + semantic 刂.

Etymology

Schuessler (2007) proposes a possible native origin, from *k-nominalized adjective 剡 (OC *ɦljamʔ, *lamʔ), which is from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-rjam (“sharp”) and lost its *r- initial due to folk etymology; doublets 磏 (OC *r(i)am, “whetstone”) and 鐮 (OC *ɡ·rem, “sickle”) retain *r-.

Alternatively, the double-edged sword seemingly originated from the southern state of Wu (吳); so a native Wu term, of unknown linguistic affiliation, might have yielded both Old Chinese 劍 (OC *kams) and Proto-Vietic *t-kɨəm.

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 劍

1. sword; dagger; sabre
2. a surname

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (劍):

• → Japanese: 剣(けん) (ken)
• → Korean: 검(劍) (geom)
• → Vietnamese: kiếm (劍)

See also

• 鋏／铗, 鍔／锷

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Japanese

Shinjitai	剣
Kyūjitai	劍

Kanji

劍

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 剣)

1. Kyūjitai form of 剣: double-edged sword; swordsmanship

Readings

• Go-on: こん (kon)^{←こん (kon, historical)←こむ (komu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: けん (ken)^{←けん (ken, historical)←けむ (kemu, ancient)}
• Kun: つるぎ (tsurugi, 劍)^{←つるぎ (turugi, 劍, historical)←つるき (turuki, 劍, ancient)}
• Nanori: あきら (akira); つとむ (tsutomu); はや (haya)

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Korean

Hanja

劍 • (geom) (hangeul 검, revised geom, McCune–Reischauer kŏm)

1. sword, knife

Compounds

• 劍客 (검객, geomgaek) swordsman
• 劍工 (검공, geomgong) sword smith
• 劍劇 (검극, geomgeuk) sword play
• 劍戟 (검극, geomgeuk) swords and spears
• 劍難 (검난, geomnan) tragedy caused by the sword
• 劍道 (검도, geomdo) swordsmanship, lit. way of the sword
• 劍舞 (검무, geommu) sword dance
• 劍法 (검법, geombeop) swordsmanship
• 劍士 (검사, geomsa) swordsman
• 劍術 (검술, geomsul) swordsmanship, lit. art of the sword
• 劍匠 (검장, geomjang) sword smith
• 劍豪 (검호, geomho) swordsman par excellence

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Vietnamese

Han character

劍: Hán Nôm readings: kiếm, ghém, gươm, kém, chém, sớm

1. sword

Compounds

• 劍術 (kiếm thuật)

Usage notes

• Chữ Nôm. The modern Vietnamese word for sword is kiếm.

References

• www.chunom.org