干 (gān) · dry; dried

Meanings

1 dry; dried
2 empty; hollow; used up
3 to have to do with; to concern
4 adoptive; sworn (kinship)
5 in vain; to no avail
6 one of the ten heavenly stems

Characters

干

gān

dry; empty; concern

A forked weapon doubling as a shield - three strokes, no internal parts.

Examples

HSK 1

我的衣服还没干。

Wǒ de yīfu hái méi gān.

My clothes aren't dry yet.

HSK 1

干杯！

Gānbēi!

Cheers! Bottoms up!

HSK 3

这件事跟我不相干。

Zhè jiàn shì gēn wǒ bù xiānggān.

This has nothing to do with me.

Tips

usage

Two readings, two traditional characters, one simplified shape. As 干 (1st tone) it covers "dry / empty / sworn" - written 乾 in traditional script. As 干 (4th tone) it means "to do / trunk / cadre" - written 幹. The 1956 reform merged both into 干, plus the original native shield 干. Same simplified glyph, three historical sources.

culture

The 干 reading is also one of the ten heavenly stems (天干): the cycle 甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸. Paired with the twelve earthly branches it produces the 60-year sexagenary cycle still used for traditional dates and astrology.

Components

pictograph

干 gān

shield; dry

Pictograph of a forked weapon used as both spear and shield - the two top horizontals are the prongs, the central vertical is the haft. Kangxi radical #51. The modern simplified 干 conflates three originally separate characters: the native shield 干, traditional 乾 ('dry'), and traditional 幹 ('trunk / to do').

Filed under radical 十 (shí, #24) by convention. 十 is not a separate component in 干, so no strokes are highlighted.

Radical

Shield Kangxi #51

Pictograph of a forked weapon used both for offense and as a shield. As an indexing radical it organizes a small handful of characters such as 平 (level), 年 (year), 幸 (fortunate), 幹 (trunk/to do). Productivity is modest; the radical is more important for lookup than for meaning hints.