膽

膽 (Kangxi radical 130, 肉+13, 17 strokes, cangjie input 月弓金口 (BNCR), four-corner 7726₁, composition ⿰月詹)

• 胆

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 995, character 23
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 29933
• Dae Jaweon: page 1446, character 34
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2117, character 7
• Unihan data for U+81BD

Historical forms of the character 膽
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *taːmʔ) : semantic ⺼ (“body part”) + phonetic 詹 (OC *tjam).

Austroasiatic (Schuessler, 2007); compare Proto-Vietic *lɔːm, Proto-Katuic *lɔɔm, Proto-Bahnaric *kləːm, etc. from Proto-Mon-Khmer *t₁ləəm ~ *t₁luəm "liver".

膽

1. (anatomy) gallbladder

   • 魏兵爭欲報讎，共剖維腹，其膽大如雞卵。 [Written Vernacular Chinese, trad.]
     魏兵争欲报雠，共剖维腹，其胆大如鸡卵。 [Written Vernacular Chinese, simp.]

     From: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, circa 14^th century CE

     Wèibīng zhēng yù bàochóu, gòng pōu Wéi fù, qí dǎn dà rú jīluǎn. [Pinyin]

     The Wei soldiers, craving vengeance, competed [to wreak it], and they sliced open [Jiang] Wei's belly; his gallbladder was as big as a hen's egg.

   膽囊／胆囊  ―  dǎnnáng  ―  gall bladder

2. (figurative) guts; courage; bravery; strength; nerve

   • 先主明旦自來至雲營圍視昨戰處，曰：「子龍一身都是膽也。」 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
     先主明旦自来至云营围视昨战处，曰：「子龙一身都是胆也。」 [Literary Chinese, simp.]

     From: Pei Songzhi, Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms, circa 5^th century CE

     Xiānzhǔ míngdàn zì lái zhì Yún yíng wéi shì zuó zhàn chù, yuē: “Zǐlóng yīshēn dōu shì dǎn yě.” [Pinyin]

     The next day, the Former Master himself came to [Zhao] Yun's camp and surveyed the battlefield from the day before; he said: "Zilong is truly courage all over."

   大膽／大胆  ―  dàdǎn  ―  bold

   冇膽鬼／冇胆鬼 [Cantonese]  ―  mou⁵ daam² gwai² [Jyutping]  ―  coward

3. inner container; liner (of a thermos); bladder (of a ball)
4. vacuum tube
5. (gambling) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

   膽拖／胆拖 [Cantonese]  ―  daam² to¹ [Jyutping]  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• (guts):

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 胆)

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

• Go-on: たん (tan)
• Kan-on: たん (tan)
• Kun: きも (kimo, 膽)

From Middle Chinese 膽 (MC tamX).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ta̠(ː)m]
• Phonetic hangul: [담(ː)]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Wikisource 膽 (eumhun 쓸개 담 (sseulgae dam))

1. Hanja form^? of 담 (“gall bladder”).
2. Hanja form^? of 담 (“courage; nerve”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

膽: Hán Nôm readings: đảm

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