What 矾 means
It names alum, a mineral salt. 矾石 means alum stone; 明矾 is a common alum compound.
Yupian, a Chinese character dictionary compiled around 543, records the older form 礬.
How was alum used?
It served medicine and crafts. Chinese medical texts classified alum stone by color. Craftspeople used alum to fix pigments and strengthen paper. In the late Qing, painters used glue made from alum and gelatin to help paper resist water.
The character also appears in a verb meaning to treat material with alum and in 山矾 (traditional 山礬), a flowering plant’s name.
Is 矾 different from 礬?
No; they are simplified and traditional forms. Traditional Chinese writing uses 礬 for 矾. Mandarin reads both fán, with a rising tone.
Who writes 矾
Loading…
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does 矾 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
More like this
9
How to type or find 矾
- Search it as
- 矾 · 明矾 · 白矾 · 矾石 · 山矾 · 礬 · fán
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
矾\77FECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.