敢

敢 U+6562, 敢 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6562 ← 敡 [U+6561] CJK Unified Ideographs 散 → [U+6563]

Translingual

Stroke order

Mainland China

Alternative forms

• In mainland China (based on Xin Zixing 新字形), the upper left component is written 乛 (one stroke).
• In other regions, the upper left component is written 丅 (two strokes) which is the orthodox form found in the Kangxi dictionary.

Han character

敢 (Kangxi radical 66, 攴+8, 12 strokes in traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean, 11 strokes in mainland China, cangjie input 弓十人大 (NJOK) or 一十人大 (MJOK), four-corner 1814₀ or 1844₀, composition ⿰⿱乛耳攵(G) or ⿰⿱丅耳攵(HTJKV))

Derived characters

• 㒈, 噉, 𡑒, 㜟, 𢕭, 㦑, 撖, 澉, 㺖, 䧩, 𣊟, 橄, 瞰, 𥕵, 𥼲, 𦗪, 𦪧, 𧗐, 譀, 豃, 𧸂, 𨅺, 𮡜, 𨬒(𰾳), 𩍉, 䭛, 䲎, 𪉿(𬸹), 𡪯, 𭗐, 䆻, 𥴊, 𫶔, 憨, 饏, 𠣽, 𭅞, 𠪚, 𤺍, 嚴/𫿞(厳/严), 闞(阚), 鬫

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 472, character 26
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13260
• Dae Jaweon: page 825, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1463, character 9
• Unihan data for U+6562

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Chinese

trad.		敢
simp. #		敢
2nd round simp.		攼

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 敢
Western Zhou	Warring States
Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script

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

	Old Chinese
撖	*kʰɯːm, *kʰreːmʔ, *ɡraːmʔ
澉	*l̥ʰaːms, *klaːmʔ
噉	*l'aːmʔ
敢	*klaːmʔ
橄	*klaːmʔ
瞰	*kʰlaːms
闞	*kʰlaːms, *qʰreːmʔ, *hŋraːms
憨	*qʰaːm, *qʰlaːms
譀	*qʰlaːms, *qʰraːms, *qʰraːb
巖	*ŋraːm
礹	*ŋraːm, *ŋamʔ
豃	*qʰraːmʔ
讝	*kjam
玁	*hŋramʔ
嚴	*ŋam
儼	*ŋamʔ
曮	*ŋamʔ
釅	*ŋams

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *klaːmʔ) : semantic 爭 (“to fight”) + phonetic 甘 (OC *kaːm).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/m-wam (“to dare”) (Schuessler, 2007; STEDT).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 敢

1. bold; brave; daring
2. to dare (to); to venture (to)

   我們必須敢想，敢說，敢幹。 [MSC, trad.]
   我们必须敢想，敢说，敢干。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒmen bìxū gǎn xiǎng, gǎn shuō, gǎn gàn. [Pinyin]

   We must dare to think, speak up and act.

   他不敢正眼看她。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

   Tā bù gǎn zhèng yǎnkàn tā. [Pinyin]

   He didn't dare to look at her in the face.

   在那個風雨交加的夜晚，很少有人敢出去。 [MSC, trad.]
   在那个风雨交加的夜晚，很少有人敢出去。 [MSC, simp.]

   Zài nà ge fēngyǔ jiāojiā de yèwǎn, hěn shào yǒurén gǎn chūqù. [Pinyin]

   Very few people ventured to go out on that stormy night.

3. to be sure; to be certain; to bet; to presume

   敢肯定  ―  gǎn kěndìng  ―  to be sure, to be certain

   敢說／敢说  ―  gǎn shuō  ―  to be sure, to be certain

   我敢說你解決不了這個難題。 [MSC, trad.]
   我敢说你解决不了这个难题。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒ gǎn shuō nǐ jiějuébuliǎo zhè ge nántí. [Pinyin]

   I bet you can't do this puzzle.

4. (polite) may I venture

   敢問／敢问  ―  gǎn wèn  ―  may I ask

   • 敢問路在何方？路在腳下。 [MSC, trad.]
     敢问路在何方？路在脚下。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 1986, 閻肅 Yan Su (lyricist) & 許鏡清 Xu Jingqing (composer),《敢問路在何方》"Dare I ask where is the road?"

     Gǎn wèn lù zài héfāng? Lù zài jiǎoxià. [Pinyin]

     Dare I ask where is the road? The road is beneath our feet.

5. (literary or Hokkien, Teochew, Taiwanese Hakka, rhetorical question) can it be possible that; how

   alt. forms: 豈／岂 (qǐ)

   敢通按呢？ [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  Kám thang án-ne? [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  How could it be like this?

6. (archaic or Xiamen Hokkien, Quanzhou Hokkien, Zhangzhou Hokkien) perhaps
7. (Taiwanese Hokkien & Hakka) Interrogative adverb, placed before the verb to create a yes-no question.

   alt. forms: 咁 (hán), 甘 (gān), 干

   你敢有閒？／你敢有闲？ [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  Lí kám ū-êng? [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  Are you free?

Synonyms

• (can it be possible that):

Dialectal synonyms of 難道 (“could it be that; is it possible that”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Classical Chinese		莫非, 豈, 莫不是
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		莫非, 豈, 難道, 莫不是
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	難道, 難不成, 甭
	Taiwan	難道, 難不成
Central Plains Mandarin	Xuzhou	難說
Cantonese	Guangzhou	唔通
	Hong Kong	唔通
	Taishan	唔成, 敢係, 唔得旨, 毋旨, 毋旨估
Hakka	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	無成, 敢講, 敢係
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	無成, 敢講, 敢係
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	無成, 敢講, 敢係
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	無成, 敢講, 敢會, 敢係
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	無成, 毋成, 敢講, 敢係
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	無敢, 敢講, 敢會, 敢係
Southern Min	Xiamen	敢, 總無
	Quanzhou	敢, 總無, 攏無
	Zhangzhou	敢, 總無
	Tainan	敢
	Manila (Hokkien)	敢
	Shantou	未是
	Jieyang	未是, 敢, 敢是
Wu	Shanghai	只勿
	Shanghai (Chongming)	難算得
Xiang	Changsha	冇過

See also

• 肯 (kěn)

Further reading

• “Entry #8439”, 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

敢

(Jōyō kanji)

1. daring, brave, bold
2. sad, tragic, pitiful

Readings

• Go-on: かん (kan, Jōyō)^{←かむ (kamu, historical)}
• Kan-on: かん (kan, Jōyō)^{←かむ (kamu, historical)}
• Kun: あえて (aete, 敢えて)、あえない (aenai, 敢えない)、あえず (aezu, 敢えず)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
敢
かん Grade: S
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 敢 (MC kamX).

Affix

敢(かん) • (kan) 

1. daring; brave; bold

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 敢行(かんこう) (kankō)
• 敢然(かんぜん) (kanzen)
• 敢闘(かんとう) (kantō)

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Korean

Hanja

敢 (eumhun 감히 감 (gamhi gam))

1. hanja form^? of 감 (“dare”)

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Vietnamese

Han character

敢: Hán Nôm readings: cám, cảm, dám

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