闪 (shǎn): to dodge; to get out of the way

Meanings

1 to dodge; to get out of the way
2 to flash; to sparkle
3 to strain; to pull (a muscle)

Characters

闪

shǎn

to flash; to dodge; to sparkle

门 (door) + 人 (person) = a person darting through a door, hence to dodge or flash.

Examples

快闪开！

Kuài shǎnkāi!

Get out of the way!

天上闪了一道光。

Tiānshàng shǎn le yīdào guāng.

A flash of light appeared in the sky.

他不小心闪了腰。

Tā bù xiǎoxīn shǎn le yāo.

He accidentally pulled a muscle in his back.

Tips

usage

闪 has surprisingly varied uses: 闪开 (dodge, get out of the way), 闪电 (lightning), 闪光 (flash), 闪腰 (pull a muscle in the back). The core idea is a sudden, quick movement.

culture

闪婚 (flash marriage) and 闪离 (flash divorce) are modern slang for marrying or divorcing very quickly.

Components

radical

门 mén

gate; door

Outer indexing radical 门 — frames the action with a gate or doorway. Pictures a pair of hinged door-leaves (simplified from 門). Marks 闪 as something that happens in or through a doorway — a quick movement past or out of the frame.

semantic

人 rén

person

Inside the doorway — a person 人 darting through. The whole character is a vivid compound ideograph: someone ducking sideways past a door, here one moment, gone the next. From that quick-movement picture come all the modern senses: dodge, flash, sparkle (a flash of light), and to strain a muscle (a sudden involuntary twist).