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骞

騫
qiān
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to soar; to rise high
  2. 2 (literary) to be deficient; to fail

Examples

张骞出使西域，开辟了丝绸之路。
Zhāng Qiān chūshǐ Xīyù, kāipì le Sīchóuzhīlù.
Zhang Qian opened the Silk Road through his missions to the Western Regions.
愿你事业高骞。
Yuàn nǐ shìyè gāoqiān.
May your career rise as high as a soaring crane.

Tips

culture
Best known from the explorer 张骞, the Han envoy whose journeys west opened the Silk Road. As a word, 骞 is literary, meaning to soar upward (or, in older texts, to be lacking).

Components

radical
马 mǎ
horse
Bottom horse radical 马. The character first described a problem with a horse's belly; from there it shifted to the figurative 'rise, soar' sense.
phonetic
寒 hán
cold; (here) sound
The top is an abbreviated 寒 (cold) serving as the phonetic that gives the sound qiān; its 'cold' meaning has no part in the modern 'soar' sense.

Stroke Order

骞 qiān