Chinese Characters

敢

PINYIN

gǎn

Main meanings:

①bolt, daring.

②dare; have confidence.

HSK - 3

STROKES - 11

RADICAL - 攴

Etymology:
Elements ---- Hand with a stick 攵 + ear 耳 + mouth? . Phonetic series 其.

A hand with a stick 攵 hits with a stick in the ear 耳 of a wild boar (now disappeared). Visible in JGW.

Main Words:

①bolt, daring
.
勇敢 yǒnggǎn brave; courageous.

②dare; have confidence.

敢于 gǎnyú dare to.
敢情 gǎnqing why; so; I say; of course; indeed.
不敢 bùgǎn dare not; not dare.

Discussion and sources

In Oracle Bone Characters and Bronze Characters two hands hold a weapon or a net to fight or try to capture a bear. In late Bronze documents it appears a mouth, later changed to an ear. Now the hand with the stick remains, and we see only an ear and the mouth of the animal.
Many scholars consider that the animal is a wild pig.

Ji Kexi, Wang Xinyan y Lu Yaran (姬克喜王新燕陆雅然). Explaining the Oracle Bone Characters with images - tracing the origin of Chinese Characters (甲骨文图解-汉字溯源). China Central Plains Old Documents Publishing House. Anyang. 2010. JKX

Wang Hongli (王弘力). Old seal characters origin and explanation (古篆释源). Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing. 2012.

Xiong Guoying (熊国英). Explaining with images the old Chinese Characters (图释古汉字). 2006

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