Radical 17

凵
← 16 Radical 17 (U+2F10) 18 →
凵 (U+51F5) "receptacle"
Pronunciations
Pinyin:kǎn
Bopomofo:ㄎㄢˇ
Wade–Giles:kʻan3
Cantonese Yale:hom1
Jyutping:ham3
Pe̍h-ōe-jī:khám
Japanese Kana:カン kan (on'yomi)
Sino-Korean:감 gam
Names
Chinese name(s):凶字框 xiōngzìkuàng
下三框 xiàsānkuāng
Japanese name(s):凵繞/かんにょう kannyō
受け箱/うけばこ ukebako
下箱/したばこ shitabako
函構/かんがまえ kangamae
Hangul:입벌릴 ip beolril
Stroke order animation

Radical 17 or radical open box (凵部) is one of 23 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of two strokes.

凵 is also the 20th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China.

As for the similar radicals 22 匚 and 13 冂, the name of radical 17 is purely descriptive of its shape, 下三框 "lower three-sided frame".

Evolution

Derived characters

Strokes Characters
+0 凵
+2 凶 (bad, inauspicious)
+3 凷 凸 凹 出 (go out, send out) 击SC (=擊 -> 手, to hit)
+4 凼
+6 函SC/TC variant/函Kangxi/JP/KO variant (box)
+7 凾 (=函)
+10 凿SC (=鑿 -> 金)

The radical does not occur as a character on its own. In combination, it historically takes meanings such as "open mouth", "box", "frame", "hole" or "receptacle".

Also derived from the radical are the Simplified Chinese characters including 击 "to hit", without any historical connection to the radical.

幽 "deep, dark" is derived from radical 46 (山 "mountain") rather than radical 17.

Literature

  • Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1.
  • Leyi Li: “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2
  • KangXi: page 134, character 17
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Radical 017.