散 - Dong Chinese dictionary

sàn, sǎn

scatter

Originally written as 𢽳, which depicted trees (林) being struck (攵) to make things fall off the tree and scatter. The character 斝 was sometimes confused with the character 散, and a corruption of it visually similar to 月 was added.

Components

𢽳 Sound Meaning component

sàn

scatter

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𢽳 than it was in ancient scripts.

斝 Remnant component

jiǎ

small jade wine cup

Modern form looks like 月.

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 斝 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

散

sàn

scatter, disperse, break up; to scatter; to break up (a meeting etc); to disperse; to disseminate; to dispel; (coll.) to sack

散

sǎn

scattered; loose; to come loose; to fall apart; leisurely; powdered medicine

散 (㪚)

sàn

variant of 散[sàn]

Most common words with 散

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	散	to scatter
	分散	to scatter
	散步	to take a walk
	扩散	to spread
	散发	to emit

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

撒

Sound component in 4 characters (1 verified)

撒霰饊馓

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese	Middle Chinese	Pinyin	Gloss
*[s]ˤa[n]ʔ	sanX	sǎn	scattered (adj.)
*mə-sˤa[n]ʔ-s	sanH	sàn	scatter (v.t.)

Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 37.6582% of movies

1074th most common character in movies

866th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes	12
Unicode	U+6563
Shuowen	“，雜肉也。从肉，聲。”

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

季旭昇《說文新證》p.345-346

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Meaning