貪

See also: 贪

Translingual

Han character

貪 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+4, 11 strokes, cangjie input 人戈弓金 (OINC), four-corner 8080₆, composition ⿱今貝)

1. greedy, covet
2. covetous

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1205, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36680
• Dae Jaweon: page 1667, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3627, character 7
• Unihan data for U+8CAA

---

Chinese

trad.		貪
simp.		贪

Glyph origin

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

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

	Old Chinese
貪	*kʰl'uːm
嗿	*l̥ʰuːmʔ
僋	*l̥ʰuːms, *luːms
酓	*qʰɯːm, *qlamʔ, *qlɯːms
馠	*qʰɯːm
谽	*qʰɯːm
唅	*qʰɯːm, *ɡɯːms
含	*ɡɯːm
肣	*ɡɯːm, *ɡɯːmʔ
頷	*ɡɯːm, *ɡɯːmʔ
筨	*ɡɯːm
梒	*ɡɯːm
鋡	*ɡɯːm
莟	*ɡɯːmʔ, *ɡɯːms
琀	*ɡɯːms
浛	*ɡɯːms
盦	*qɯːm, *qaːb
韽	*qɯːm, *qrɯːms
玪	*krɯːm
妗	*qʰrɯːm, *kʰjam, *qʰlɯːm, *ɡrɯms
欦	*qʰrɯːmʔ, *qʰram, *kʰlam, *kʰlamʔ, *qʰlɯːm
黔	*ɡram, *ɡrɯm
鈐	*ɡram
鳹	*ɡram
雂	*ɡram, *ɡrɯm
念	*nɯːms
梣	*sɡɯm, *sɡrɯm
枔	*sɢrɯm
岑	*sɡrɯm
笒	*sɡrɯm, *ɡrɯms
涔	*sɡrɯm
侺	*ɡjɯms
今	*krɯm
黅	*krɯm
衿	*krɯm
衾	*kʰrɯm
坅	*kʰrɯmʔ
搇	*kʰrɯms
琴	*ɡrɯm
禽	*ɡrɯm
芩	*ɡrɯm
庈	*ɡrɯm
耹	*ɡrɯm
靲	*ɡrɯm
擒	*ɡrɯm
檎	*ɡrɯm
紟	*ɡrɯms
吟	*ŋɡrɯm, *ŋɡrɯms
訡	*ŋɡrɯm
廞	*qʰrɯm, *qʰrɯmʔ
陰	*qrɯm
霠
飲	*qrɯmʔ, *qrɯms
蔭	*qrɯms
廕	*qrɯms
矜	*ɡrɯn, *ɡɯn, *kɯŋ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kʰl'uːm) and ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : phonetic 今 (OC *krɯm, “open mouth”) + semantic 貝 (“money”).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): tān (tan¹)

  (Zhuyin): ㄊㄢ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): taam¹
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): thâm
• Northern Min (KCR): táng
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): tham

  (Teochew, Peng'im): tam¹

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: tān
    • Zhuyin: ㄊㄢ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: tan
    • Wade–Giles: tʻan¹
    • Yale: tān
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tan
    • Palladius: тань (tanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰän⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: taam¹
    • Yale: tāam
    • Cantonese Pinyin: taam¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: tam¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰaːm⁵⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: thâm
    • Hakka Romanization System: tam´
    • Hagfa Pinyim: tam¹
    • Sinological IPA: /tʰam²⁴/
• Northern Min
  • (Jian'ou)
    • Kienning Colloquial Romanized: táng
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰaŋ⁵⁴/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tham
    • Tâi-lô: tham
    • Phofsit Daibuun: tafm
    • IPA (Xiamen): /tʰam⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /tʰam³³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /tʰam⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Taipei): /tʰam⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /tʰam⁴⁴/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: tam¹
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tham
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰam³³/

---

• Dialectal data

Variety	Location	edit 貪
Mandarin	Beijing	/tʰan⁵⁵/
	Harbin	/tʰan⁴⁴/
	Tianjin	/tʰan²¹/
	Jinan	/tʰã²¹³/
	Qingdao	/tʰã²¹³/
	Zhengzhou	/tʰan²⁴/
	Xi'an	/tʰã²¹/
	Xining	/tʰã⁴⁴/
	Yinchuan	/tʰan⁴⁴/
	Lanzhou	/tʰɛ̃n³¹/
	Ürümqi	/tʰan⁴⁴/
	Wuhan	/tʰan⁵⁵/
	Chengdu	/tʰan⁵⁵/
	Guiyang	/tʰan⁵⁵/
	Kunming	/tʰã̠⁴⁴/
	Nanjing	/tʰaŋ³¹/
	Hefei	/tʰæ̃²¹/
Jin	Taiyuan	/tʰæ̃¹¹/
	Pingyao	/tɑŋ¹³/
	Hohhot	/tʰæ̃³¹/
Wu	Shanghai	/tʰø⁵³/
	Suzhou	/tʰø⁵⁵/
	Hangzhou	/tʰẽ̞³³/
	Wenzhou	/tʰø³³/
Hui	Shexian	/tʰɛ³¹/
	Tunxi	/tʰɔ¹¹/
Xiang	Changsha	/tʰan³³/
	Xiangtan	/tʰan³³/
Gan	Nanchang	/tʰɵn⁴²/
Hakka	Meixian	/tʰam⁴⁴/
	Taoyuan	/tʰɑm²⁴/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/tʰam⁵³/
	Nanning	/tʰam⁵⁵/
	Hong Kong	/tʰam⁵⁵/
Min	Xiamen (Hokkien)	/tʰam⁵⁵/
	Fuzhou (Eastern Min)	/tʰaŋ⁴⁴/
	Jian'ou (Northern Min)	/tʰaŋ⁵⁴/
	Shantou (Teochew)	/tʰam³³/
	Haikou (Hainanese)	/ham²³/

---

• Middle Chinese: thom

Rime
Character	貪
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	透 (6)
Final (韻)	覃 (159)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	他含切
Baxter	thom
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/tʰʌm/
Pan Wuyun	/tʰəm/
Shao Rongfen	/tʰɒm/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/tʰəm/
Li Rong	/tʰᴀm/
Wang Li	/tʰɒm/
Bernard Karlgren	/tʰăm/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	tān
Expected Cantonese Reflex	taam1

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*r̥ˤ[ə]m/

  (Zhengzhang): /*kʰl'uːm/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	貪
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	tān
Middle Chinese	‹ thom ›
Old Chinese	/*r̥ˁ[ə]m/
English	to covet
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	貪
Reading #	1/1
No.	6552
Phonetic component	今
Rime group	侵
Rime subdivision	3
Corresponding MC rime	探
Old Chinese	/*kʰl'uːm/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 貪

1. greedy
2. to be fond of; to be preoccupied with; to do sth excessively

---

Japanese

Kanji

貪

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

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

Readings

• Go-on: とん (ton)
• Kan-on: たん (tan)
• Kan’yō-on: どん (don, Jōyō)
• Kun: むさぼる (musaboru, 貪る, Jōyō)

---

Korean

Hanja

貪 • (tam) (hangeul 탐, revised tam, McCune–Reischauer t'am, Yale tham)

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

---

Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 貪 (tham)

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