侃

kǎn
#3,309 most
frequent character
upright and honest, cheerful

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

侃 has a person 亻 and a river 川 as picture parts, with 口 as an empty part that marks it apart. It first meant joy, happiness. From there it grew to chatting idly and then boasting. The senses 'upright and honest' and 'pit, hole' were borrowed for sound, not from the picture.

Drawn as: person; river

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Same Characters, Different Readings

侃kǎn
old variant of 侃[kan3]

Homophones

HSK 5
砍kǎn
to chop, to cut down, to throw sth at sb

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