bàng
verb/noun #17,473

Meanings

  1. 1 near; approaching
  2. 2 dusk; towards evening

Examples

Bàngwǎn qù sànbù.
Go for a walk at dusk.
Yī bàng dàshān.
Nestled against the mountain.

Tips

usage
傍晚 = dusk/evening is the most common compound.

Components

radical
rén
person (radical form of 人)
Person radical on the left — the side-form of , the indexing radical. A person standing close beside something is the literal image: = a person at someone's side. From that came the verb 'to be near, to draw close,' and the noun 'dusk' (the time of day that draws close to night). Same family: (you), (he), (live), (companion).
phonetic
páng
side; beside (here phonetic)
Right side supplies the sound (páng → bàng with a P/B onset shift) and the meaning at the same time — literally means 'beside.' This is one of the cleanest cases in the script: phonetic and semantic stacked on top of each other. The person-radical is added only to specify the human angle of 'standing alongside.'

Stroke Order

bàng