■ radical

nán

hard

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 堇 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "type of bird", which is unrelated to the modern meaning. The simplified character 难 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 難.

隹

meaning

bird

又

simplified

(hand); again — Shorthand for the 堇 component in the traditional character 難. The pronunciation of 難 was similar to 堇 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

Through the ages

Traditional script

Cursive script

Appears in

Characters that use 难 as a component, most common first.

摊tānto spread out 瘫tānparalysis 傩nuórich

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