扇 (shān): to fan (to create a breeze; to…

Meanings

1 to fan (to create a breeze; to flap, as of wings)
2 to slap (someone's face)
3 to incite; to stir up; to instigate

Characters

扇

shān

to fan (to create a breeze; to flap, as of wings)

Examples

她拿扇子扇风。

Tā ná shànzi shān fēng.

She used a fan to cool herself down.

他扇了他一巴掌。

Tā shān le tā yī bāzhang.

He slapped him across the face.

别在旁边扇风点火。

Bié zài pángbiān shān fēng diǎn huǒ.

Don't fan the flames from the sidelines.

Tips

usage

Three action senses, all on shān (first tone). Literal: 扇风 (fan the air). Slap: 扇耳光 / 扇巴掌 (slap across the face) — the motion mirrors fanning. Incite: 扇动 (to flap, but also figuratively to stir up trouble), 扇风点火 (literally 'fan wind, kindle fire' — to instigate). The noun reading 扇 (fan, door-leaf, classifier) handles everything else.

Components

radical

户 hù

door; household

Outer-upper door radical — the indexing component (Kangxi #63). Pictures a single-leaf door (one half of 門). The original meaning of 扇 was 'a door-leaf,' hence the door radical. From there extended to anything that opens and closes like a door panel: a fan, a shutter, paired leaves.

semantic

羽 yǔ

feathers; wings

Inner-lower feather radical — depicts paired feathers. Combined with the door above, the image is a feathered hand-fan opening like a door-leaf, the canonical fan made of bird feathers. Drives the modern reading shàn ('fan') and the verbal sense of fanning the air. Same family as 翅 (wing), 翼 (wing).