jiǎn
noun #14,398

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 cocoon
  2. 2 callus

Examples

HSK 6
Tā shǒushàng mó chū le jiǎn.
He developed calluses on his hands.
HSK 7-9
Cán tǔ sī jié jiǎn.
Silkworms spin silk to form cocoons.

Tips

culture
The idiom 作茧自缚 means 'to spin a cocoon around oneself' - to get trapped by one's own actions.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top three-stroke grass radical - the indexing radical for the simplified . The classical form had (silk) below and a much more complex top; the PRC reform replaced the whole upper structure with to evoke the mulberry leaves silkworms eat, then dropped silk for .
semantic
chóng
insect; worm
Bottom - pictograph of a coiled worm, here standing in for the silkworm itself. Grass leaf above + worm below paints the cocoon scene directly: the larva wrapped on a mulberry branch. This semantic compound makes unusually transparent for a simplified character.

Stroke Order

jiǎn