The Logic of 旱

Although most kanji don’t resolve neatly into logical, meaningful components, 旱 (KAN, hideri: drought) appears to be one that actually does! It contains these two components:

日 (NICHI, hi: sun)
干 (KAN, ho(su): dry, to parch)

When there’s a drought, the sun parches the earth. How cool is that?!

Well, OK, maybe the character would have told a fuller story if it somehow contained 雨 (ame: rain) crossed out, but we can’t have everything!

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