龟 (jūn): to crack; to become chapped or…

Meanings

1 to crack; to become chapped or fissured

Characters

龟

jūn

to crack; to become chapped or fissured

Examples

干旱过后稻田龟裂了。

Gānhàn guòhòu dàotián jūnliè le.

After the drought the paddy fields cracked all over.

冬天他手上的皮肤容易龟裂。

Dōngtiān tā shǒushàng de pífū róngyì jūnliè.

In winter the skin on his hands easily becomes chapped.

Tips

usage

The jūn reading is the 'crack / fissure' sense and is essentially confined to 龟裂: cracked earth, a crazed glaze, or chapped skin. It is a variant of 皲. For the animal use the guī reading.

Components

pictograph

龟 jūn

turtle; tortoise

龟 is a self-radical pictograph of a turtle seen from the side: the top stroke is the head and front leg, the central grid is the patterned shell, and the hooked bottom stroke is the tail. Heavily simplified from traditional 龜, which kept a far more elaborate side view, but the modern silhouette still preserves the basic turtle shape. As Kangxi radical 213 it heads the very small turtle family.

Radical

Turtle Kangxi #213

A near-self-contained radical: 龟 indexes itself plus a handful of rare sea-turtle derivatives. Pictograph of a turtle in side view, with head, legs, shell and tail visible in the original graph. The 'crack' reading jūn (as in 龟裂) borrows the tortoise-shell pattern of fissures.