端 (duān) · end; extremity; beginning

Meanings

1 end; extremity; beginning
2 to hold something level with both hands; to carry
3 upright; proper

Characters

端

duān

end; to hold level; upright

Examples

HSK 2

她坐得很端正。

Tā zuò de hěn duānzhèng.

She sits very upright.

HSK 3

请把菜端上来。

Qǐng bǎ cài duān shànglái.

Please bring the dishes to the table.

HSK 4

桌子的另一端坐着他。

Zhuōzi de lìng yī duān zuò zhe tā.

He was sitting at the other end of the table.

Tips

usage

As a verb, 端 means to carry something carefully and level (e.g., a bowl of soup, a tray). You 端 things that would spill - you don't 端 a book, you 拿 a book.

memory

Picture holding a tray perfectly level with both hands - that's 端.

Components

radical

立 lì

to stand

Left stand radical, originally a person standing upright on the ground line. It supplies the meaning: standing straight, hence the “upright, proper” senses of 端 (端正 upright, 端庄 dignified). It also anchors the 'extreme end' meaning - the upright extremity of something. Joins 站, 竞, 章 in the standing-up family.

phonetic

耑 duān

sprout; beginning

Right 耑 supplies the sound - exact match duān with no drift. 耑 itself originally pictured a sprouting plant with roots reaching down and shoot rising up, the very image of 'a beginning, a starting end'. That meaning bleeds richly into 端: the start or tip of something, an extremity. 端 is in fact the modern written form for what 耑 once meant alone.