dūn
adjective #12,871

Meanings

  1. 1 kindhearted; sincere; honest
  2. 2 to urge; to press

Examples

Tā wéirén dūnhòu lǎoshi.
He is a sincere and honest person.
Dūn huáng shì Sīchóuzhīlù shàng de zhòngyào chéngshì.
Dunhuang is an important city on the Silk Road.

Tips

usage
Most commonly seen in the place name (Dunhuang) and in the word 敦厚 (honest and kind). Also appears in transliterations like 伦敦 (London).

Components

radical
tap; strike (radical form)
Right — the rap radical, simplified from , depicting a hand holding a stick. The indexing element. Originally named the ritual of urging or admonishing someone earnestly, with the stick standing for emphasis rather than violence. From that solemn-urging picture grew the modern senses of 'kindhearted, sincere, weighty.' Same radical- family: (teach), (govern), (correct).
phonetic
xiǎng
offer; enjoy (here phonetic)
Left supplies the sound — xiǎng drifting to dūn through complex phonetic shift; the same vowel family connects to (pure) and (rich wine). itself depicts a high ancestral hall used for offering food to the spirits — the seed for 'present, enjoy.' The image suits : a sincere, weighty gesture of giving.

Stroke Order

dūn