匡 (Kuāng): surname Kuang

Meanings

1 surname Kuang
2 (literary) to rectify; to correct
3 (literary) to assist
4 (colloquial) to estimate roughly

Characters

匡

kuāng

to rectify; to correct; surname

Examples

匡衡凿壁偷光的故事广为流传。

Kuāng Héng záo bì tōu guāng de gùshi guǎng wéi liúchuán.

The story of Kuang Heng boring a hole in the wall to steal light is widely known.

我们要匡正社会上的不良风气。

Wǒmen yào kuāng zhèng shèhuì shàng de bùliáng fēngqì.

We must rectify the unhealthy trends in society.

Tips

history

The most famous bearer of this surname is 匡衡 (Kuāng Héng), a Han dynasty scholar so poor he drilled a hole in his wall to read by his neighbor's candlelight. The idiom 凿壁偷光 (záobì tōuguāng) comes from his story.

Components

radical

匚 fāng

open box; receptacle

Open-box radical surrounding from the left, the indexing component. It pictures a basket or rectangular vessel laid on its side, and frames 匡 with the container family: 匣 small box, 匠 craftsman in a workshop, 区 zone-as-enclosure. The two strokes wrap the inside content.

phonetic

王 wáng

king; jade

Inside the box sits 王 wáng, supplying the sound with a regular w- → k- shift (wáng → kuāng) typical of old Chinese. As a surname 匡 is the most common modern use; the literary meaning 'to rectify' pictures setting something straight inside its proper frame.