lán
noun #5,662

Meanings

  1. 1 basket

Examples

Tā hěn xǐhuan dǎ lánqiú.
He really likes playing basketball.
Lánzi lǐ yǒu shuǐguǒ.
There is fruit in the basket.

Tips

usage
is mainly found in 篮球 (lánqiú, basketball) and 篮子 (lánzi, basket). The radical on top reflects baskets originally made from bamboo.

Components

radical
zhú
bamboo (top form of 竹)
Bamboo top radical — the compressed top-stacked form of . Baskets in old China were woven from bamboo, so the radical is exact. Same radical heads with brush, calculate, laugh, answer, ordinal — the wide bamboo-implement and bamboo-tablet family.
phonetic
jiān
to oversee; supervise (here phonetic)
Bottom supplies the sound: jiān drifted to lán with regular j/l alternation. Same phonetic also gives lán (blue), làn (overflow), jiàn / kǎn (threshold) — a productive jiān/lán family. The shared phonetic links (basket) and (blue) into the same word-family.

In Pop Culture

灌篮高手 Guànlán gāoshǒu
Slam Dunk
iconic basketball anime, hugely popular in China

Stroke Order

lán