漢

Alternative forms

 * In Traditional Chinese, Japanese kyūjitai, Korean hanja, the component for this character is written with  on top. Note that the bottom portion is written  overlapped by  and not  on top of.
 * In Vietnamese Hán Nôm, can be written with, , or  on top. But the most common variant of  is with  written on top.
 * In Japanese shinjitai, the component is written with  on top and has one stroke less. Due to Han unification, both traditional Chinese and Japanese shinjitai forms are encoded under the same code point. The appearance of this character will differ depending on the font used.
 * In Simplified Chinese, the component is simplified to  instead, giving the character.
 * Two compatibility ideographs exist for this character.  corresponds to the kyūjitai form of this character while   corresponds to the alternative form used in North Korea which is similar to Japanese shinjitai.

Glyph origin
– name of a river.

Definitions

 * 1)  Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze
 * 2)  the Milky Way
 * 3)  Han Dynasty
 * 4) Han ethnicity; Han Chinese
 * 5) man; guy; bloke
 * 6) husband
 * 7)  Han River, the fourth-longest river on the Korean peninsula
 * 1) Han ethnicity; Han Chinese
 * 2) man; guy; bloke
 * 3) husband
 * 4)  Han River, the fourth-longest river on the Korean peninsula
 * 1) husband
 * 2)  Han River, the fourth-longest river on the Korean peninsula
 * 1)  Han River, the fourth-longest river on the Korean peninsula

Kanji

 * 1) Sino-, China
 * 2) man

Etymology 1
From, in reference to the  ethnic group.

The sense of arose from usage in Chinese to differentiate between the “civilized” people of the  ethnicity versus other ethnic groups.

Noun

 * 1) man

Proper noun

 * 1) the name of China during the  (206  – 220 )
 * 2) name of various Chinese dynasties
 * 3) the  or  (206  – 9 )
 * 4) the  or  (25–220 )
 * 5) the  (221–263)
 * 6) the  (304–347)
 * 7) the  (917–971)
 * 8) the  (947–951)
 * 9) the  (951–979)
 * 10) the  people
 * 11) the, a tributary of the Yangtze
 * 12)  the Milky Way
 * 13) alternative name for
 * 1) alternative name for

Etymology 2
From.

Originally referred to the, an independent state in the south of the Korean peninsula in the years 42–562. Over time, the meaning extended to refer in general to the Korean peninsula and China, expanding further just before and during the to refer to foreign lands in general.

Noun

 * 1)  shortly before and during the, foreign lands in general

Proper noun

 * 1) the
 * 2)  the Korean peninsula
 * 3)  China, especially during the

Etymology 3
From, in reference to clans purportedly originating from China. Appears to be cognate with /  /  /, possibly in distant reference to technologies and cultural practices brought to Japan by the original Chinese immigrants.

Proper noun

 * 1) short for : name of one of two ancient clans, purportedly descendants from, and notable historically for major achievements in fields including literature, diplomacy, and finance, among others

Etymology 4
Rare alternative spelling for, from usage in Chinese to differentiate between the “civilized” people of the ethnicity versus other ethnic groups.

See the entry for the derivation of the reading.

Etymology
From.

Han character



 * 1) Of or relating to China

Compounds

 * 1) 漢喃 (Hán Nôm) Vietnamese made Chinese characters