弄

Translingual

Han character

弄 (Kangxi radical 55, 廾+4, 7 strokes, cangjie input 一土廿 (MGT), four-corner 1044₁, composition ⿱王廾)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 353, character 17
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 9596
• Dae Jaweon: page 669, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 515, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5F04

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Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 弄
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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

	Old Chinese
筭	*sloːns
弄	*roːŋs
梇	*roːŋs
哢	*roːŋs
硦	*rʷaːɡ

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 玉 (“jade”) + 廾 (“hands”) – play with a jade artefact using one's hands.

Etymology 1

simp. and trad.		弄
alternative forms		挵

Compared with Khmer លួង (luəng, “to console; to cheer; to coax; to flatter”) < < Pre-Angkorian Khmer loṅ. The Khmer initial consonant does not agree with Old Chinese; perhaps the Khmer word is a post-Han loan (Schuessler, 2007).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 弄

1. to play with; to play around with; to fiddle with; to fondle

   真的是命運弄人。 [MSC, trad.]
   真的是命运弄人。 [MSC, simp.]

   Zhēnde shì mìngyùn nòng rén. [Pinyin]

   It must be a quirk of fate.

2. to enjoy; to play
3. trick; magic
4. to make fun of; to tease; to bully
5. to show off; to make a show of
6. (Southern Min) to amuse (a child)
7. (music) to play (a musical instrument); to perform
8. (music) ditty
9. to do; to engage in; to undertake; to deal with
10. to make ... do/become ...; to cause ... to do ...

    他把小孩弄哭了。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

    Tā bǎ xiǎohái nòng kū le. [Pinyin]

    He made the kid cry.

11. (colloquial) to cause someone to become pregnant
12. (Southern Min) to shake off; to shake out
13. to marry
14. to investigate; to look into
15. to get; to obtain; to fetch

    你這書哪兒弄的呀。 [MSC, trad.]
    你这书哪儿弄的呀。 [MSC, simp.]

    Nǐ zhè shū nǎr nòng de ya. [Pinyin]

    Where did you get the book?

16. to decorate; to dress up; to put on make-up

Etymology 2

simp. and trad.		弄
alternative forms		衖

Possibly from an ancient regional variant of 巷 (OC *ɡroːŋs, “alley”).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 弄

1. (historical) lane in palace
2. (regional) alleyway; lane; apartment complex (especially in Shanghai)

   安遠路一八弄／安远路一八弄  ―  Ānyuǎn Lù Yībā Lòng  ―  18 Anyuan Road

Further reading

• (Min Nan pronunciation audio) “Entry #3143”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

(deprecated template usage)

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Japanese

Kanji

弄

(Jōyō kanji)

1. tamper with

Readings

• Go-on: る (ru)
• Kan-on: ろう (rō, Jōyō)
• Kun: もてあそぶ (moteasobu, 弄ぶ, Jōyō); たわむれる (tawamureru, 弄れる); いじる (ijiru, 弄る); いじくる (ijikuru, 弄る); いらう (irau, 弄う); いろう (irou, 弄う); まさぐる (masaguru, 弄る)

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Korean

Hanja

弄 • (rong>nong) (hangeul 롱>농, revised rong>nong, McCune–Reischauer rong>nong, Yale long>nong)

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

(deprecated template usage) 弄 (lộng, lóng, lồng, luồng, lòng, lụng, trổng)

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