Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

任 (radical 9 人+4, 6 strokes, cangjie input 人竹土 (OHG), four-corner 2221₄, composition ⿰亻壬)

Derived characters

• 賃 (赁)

References

• KangXi: page 94, character 24
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 416
• Dae Jaweon: page 200, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 122, character 6
• Unihan data for U+4EFB

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 任
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script
Bronze inscriptions b12353 b12354 Large seal script L33730 L33731 L12273 L12274 L12275 L12276 L12277 L12278 L12279 Small seal script s05801
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (large seal) and Xu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *njɯm, *njɯms) : semantic 亻 ‎(“person”) + phonetic 壬 ‎(OC *l̥ʰeːŋʔ, *njɯm) – to carry on a shoulder pole.

Note that its phonetic part 壬 (OC *njɯm) may be the graphical representation of 任, depicting a shoulder pole that was rotated for 90 degrees.

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

任

1. to carry on a shoulder pole; to carry
2. to bear; to endure; to put up with
3. to take charge of; to assume the post of; to be in charge of
4. to trust to; to rely on; to believe; to guarantee
5. to appoint; to assign someone to a post
6. to indulge; to be self-indulgent; to allow
7. load; burden; luggage; baggage
8. duty; responsibility; obligation
9. tenure; term of office; incumbency
10. office; post; position
11. officeholder; postholder
12. even if; even though
13. no matter how; regardless of
14. Classifier for terms of office.

Compounds

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

任

1. (historical) an ancient woman's rank of nobility
2. (historical) an ancient music of the southern indigenous people
3. ^†Alternative form of 壬 (rén, “artful”).
4. A surname​.

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 5 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. responsibility
2. duty
3. term
4. entrust to
5. appoint

Readings

• Goon: にん (nin), にむ (nimu)
• Kan’on: じん (jin), じむ (jimu) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kun: まかせる (makaseru), になう (ninau), たえる (taeru)

Compounds

Noun

任 ‎(hiragana にん, romaji nin)

1. duty, responsibility, obligation

Korean

Hanja

任 • ‎(im) (hangeul 임, revised yim, McCune-Reischauer im)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

任 (nhậm, nhẩm, nhầm, nhiệm, nhâm, nhăm, nhặm, vững)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Nom Foundation