漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
男: male
田 carries the meaning · 力 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ダンdan · on'yomi · in compounds
- 男子学生だんしがくせいmale student
- 男性だんせいmale
- 男子だんしboy
- 男女だんじょmen and women; man and woman; both sexes
- 男児だんじboy; son
ナンnan · on'yomi
- 長男ちょうなんeldest son
- 三男さんなんthree sons
おとこotoko · kun'yomi · on its own
- 男おとこman
Also read お, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)田 field + 力 strength
Man providing the strength for agricultural and/or other kinds of (physical) labour on a field.
Source: Wiktionary, 男 (rev. 92739176), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Field (田) + strength (力). The classic representation of a "man" using his "strength" to work in the "rice fields"—the defining role of traditional masculinity.”
Connections
Also read ダン
11 kanji share this on'yomiAlso read ナン
5 kanji share this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · nán
Same form: 男 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 男 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 男 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin nán most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.