砍 (kǎn) · to chop, to hack, to cut down

Meanings

1 to chop
2 to hack
3 to cut down
4 to slash

Characters

砍

kǎn

to chop; to hack

Examples

HSK 5

别砍价了，已经很便宜了。

Bié kǎnjià le, yǐjīng hěn piányi le.

Stop haggling, it's already very cheap.

HSK 6

他把木头砍成两半。

Tā bǎ mùtou kǎn chéng liǎng bàn.

He chopped the wood in half.

HSK 7-9

他用斧头砍树。

Tā yòng fǔtóu kǎn shù.

He chopped the tree with an axe.

Tips

usage

砍价 is a common colloquial expression meaning 'to haggle/bargain' - literally 'to chop the price.'

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Left stone radical - pictograph of a rock face (top 厂 = cliff overhang) with a boulder 口 fallen below. Anchors 砍 in the stone-tool family alongside 破 (break), 碎 (smash), 砸 (pound). The original 砍 named the action of working stone with a stone axe - chopping, hacking.

phonetic

欠 qiàn

to yawn; lack (here phonetic)

Right 欠 supplies the sound - qiàn drifted to kǎn through a regular Old Chinese k/q alternation. 欠 itself depicts a person leaning over with mouth open (yawning, sighing, owing). Same phonetic in 砍's near-twin 坎 (pit), 嵌 (inlay). Pure phonetic loan; the 'yawn' meaning contributes nothing semantic.