叛

pàn
verb #17,648

Meanings

  1. 1 to betray
  2. 2 to rebel; to revolt

Examples

HSK 3
Tā pàn le zìjǐ de guójiā.
He betrayed his own country.
HSK 7-9
Pànjūn yǐjīng gōngzhàn le shǒudū.
The rebel army has already captured the capital.

Tips

usage
叛 is a bound morpheme - it rarely appears alone in modern Chinese. Common compounds: 叛变 (defect), 叛徒 (traitor), 叛逆 (rebellious), 叛军 (rebel army), 背叛 (betray).

Components

radical
反 fǎn
reverse; oppose
Right 反 - historically the 又 hand radical with an extra stroke marking a hand flipped over, hence 'to turn against, to revolt.' The indexing radical here is 又 (Kangxi #29) inside 反, marking hand-turning action. Combined with 半 'split,' the picture is unmistakable: half-splitting turned against you = treason.
phonetic
半 bàn
half
Left 半 supplies the sound - bàn shifting to pàn with consonant change. It also carries a sharp semantic flavor: 'to split or divide in two,' which is exactly what a traitor does - breaks off from the group, splits the loyalty. Same phonetic family: 伴 companion, 拌 mix, 绊 trip up, 胖 fat.

Stroke Order

叛 pàn