Translingual

Han character

萬 (radical 140 艸+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 廿田中月 (TWLB), four-corner 4442₇, composition ⿱艹禺)

Derived characters

• 噧 澫 燤 蠇 贎 勱 (劢) 蠆 (虿) 躉 (趸) 厲 (厉) 邁 (迈)

References

• KangXi: page 1042, character 33
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 31339
• Dae Jaweon: page 1501, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3247, character 8
• Unihan data for U+842C

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 萬
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

This character has lost its original meaning of “scorpion”. The derivative 蠆 (OC *m̥ʰraːds) refers to the original word.

Etymology

Three roots can perhaps be distinguished:

1. “Scorpion”: See 蠆 (OC *m̥ʰraːds);
2. “Religious dance; sorcery”: Perhaps from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-man ‎(“medicine”). Compare Tibetan སྨན ‎(sman, “medicine; she-demons worshipped by common folk”), Burmese မန်း ‎(man:, “utter mystic words to heal or ward off evil”);
3. “Ten thousand”: Schuessler (2007) considers the etymology of this sense Sino-Tibetan, and compares it with Tibetan འབུམ ‎('bum, “hundred thousand; complete; entire; multifarious”). Similar words are found in branches of Altaic and Tocharian; here they are treated as very old loanwords from Chinese, per Pulleyblank (apud Clauson, 1972), Beckwith (2009), Adams (2013) and Tremblay (2005).

Pronunciation

Definitions

萬

1. ^†Original form of 蠆／虿 (chài, “scorpion”).
2. (historical) A ritual dance in ancient China.
3. ten thousand

   萬歲 / 万岁  ―  wànsuì  ―  ten thousand years; hooray; long live

4. (figuratively) a great number
5. innumerable; numerous
6. very; extremely; absolutely
7. A surname​.

See also

Compounds

Descendants

• → Altaic:
  • → Chinese: 頭曼 (OC *doː moːn, “Touman, the first leader (chanyu) of the Xiongnu”)
  • Proto-Turkic: *Tümen ‎(“ten thousand; an infinitely large number”)
    • Turkish: tümen ‎(“ten thousand”)
  • Middle Mongolian: ᠲᠦᠮᠡᠨ ‎(tümen, “ten thousand”)
    • → English: tumen ‎(“an army unit of 10,000 soldiers, among the ancient Mongols”)
    • → Persian: تومان ‎(tumân)
      • → English: toman ‎(“former currency of Iran”)
    • → Russian: Тюмень ‎(Tjumenʹ, “Tyumen”)
      • → English: Tyumen ‎(“city in Russia”)
    • Khalkha Mongolian: ᠲᠦᠮᠡ ‎(tüme) / түм ‎(tüm)
  • Tungusic:
    • Manchu: ᡨᡠᠮᡝᠨ ‎(tumen, “ten thousand”)
      • → Chinese: 圖們／图们 (“Tumen, city in China”), 圖們江／图们江 (“Tumen River, boundary river between China, North Korea and Russia”)
        • → Korean: 도문 (圖們, domun, “Tumen”)
        • → English: Tumen ‎(“city in China”)
      • → Korean: 두만강 (豆滿江, duman-gang, “Tumen River”)
  • Korean: 즈믄 (jeumeun, “(obsolete) thousand”)
  • Japanese: 千 (ち) ‎(chi, “thousand”)
• → Tocharian:
  • Tocharian A: tmāṃ ‎(“ten thousand”)
  • Tocharian B: t_(u)māne ‎(“ten thousand, a myriad”)
• → Japanese: 萬 (まん) ‎(man), 萬 (ばん) ‎(ban, “ten thousand”)
  • → English: banzai ‎(“Japanese battle cry; cry of enthusiasm”)
• → Korean: 만 (萬, man, “ten thousand”)
• → Vietnamese: muôn ‎(“ten thousand; all, many”)
• → Vietnamese: vạn (萬, "ten thousand; myriad")
• → Khmer: ម៉ឺន ‎(mœn), ហ្មឺន ‎(mœn, “ten thousand; official rank”)
• → Shan: မိုၼ်ႇ ‎(“ten thousand”)
• → Lao: ໝື່ນ ‎(mư̄n), ຫມື່ນ ‎(mư̄n, “ten thousand; official rank”)
• → Thai: หมื่น ‎(mʉ̀ʉn, “ten thousand; official rank”)

Japanese

Kanji

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 万)

1. ten thousand

Readings

• On: まん (man), ばん (ban)
• Kun: よろず (yorozu)
• Nanori: かず (kazu), ま (ma), ゆる (yuru), よし (yoshi)

References

1. Source: EDICT and KANJIDIC files licensed by the Electronic Dictionaries Research Group.

Korean

Hanja

萬 • ‎(man)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 만 (McCune-Reischauer: man, Yale: man)

• Name (hangeul): 만 (revised: man, McCune-Reischauer: man, Yale: man)

Noun

萬 • ‎(man) ‎(hangeul 만)

1. Hanja form^? of 만, “ten thousand”.

Vietnamese

Han character

萬 (vạn, vàn, mại, muôn)

Noun

萬

1. Hán tự form of vạn, vàn, mại, muôn, “ten thousand”