Chinese Character Wiki
函

hán

envelop, case

Original meaning: 

quiver, arrow case

Pictograph of an arrow inside a quiver. Based on the original meaning "quiver, arrow case". The meaning later shifted to "case", "box", "envelop" and "letter".

Components
◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts an inverted arrow.

凵 iconic component

凵  Iconic component

qiǎn, kǎn

  

enclosure

Used here to depict a quiver.

Evolution

函 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
函 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
函 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
函 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
函 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

函  

hán

correspondence; a case; a box; envelope; case; letter

函 (圅) 

hán

variant of 函[hán]

Most common words with 函
Freq.
Word
Meaning

邀请函

invitation letter

函

case

函数

function (math.)

信函

letter

函授

to teach by correspondence

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

涵 菡

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*Cə-m-kˤ[ə]m

hom

hán

envelop, contain


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 2.5148% of movies

2846th most common character in movies

1950th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+51FD

Shuowen

“圅，舌也。象形，舌體。从，亦聲。肣，俗圅从肉、今。”


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