鮮

鮮 (Kangxi radical 195, 魚+6, 17 strokes, cangjie input 弓火廿手 (NFTQ), four-corner 2835₁, composition ⿰魚羊)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1470, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 46133
• Dae Jaweon: page 2002, character 25
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4688, character 6
• Unihan data for U+9BAE

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sen, *senʔ, *sens): semantic 魚 (“fish”) + abbreviated phonetic 羴 (OC *qʰreːn, *qʰljen).

Alternatively, may be ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 魚 (“fish”) + 羊 (“sheep”) – delicious.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sar (“new; fresh”). Cognate with Proto-Tibeto-Burman *g-sar (“new; fresh”), whence Tibetan གསར་བ (gsar ba, “new; fresh”), Rawang angsar (“new”), Drung aksal (“new”), Mizo tʰarᴴ (“new”) (Schuessler, 2007); cognate with Tibetan གསར་ (gsar, “new”), Burmese ဆန်း (hcan:, “new, fresh”) (Hill, 2019).

鮮

1. seafood; aquatic food

   海鮮／海鲜  ―  hǎixiān  ―  seafood

2. delicious food; fresh food

   嘗鮮／尝鲜  ―  chángxiān  ―  to taste fresh food

3. fresh; not stale

   鮮魚／鲜鱼  ―  xiānyú  ―  fresh fish

4. brightly colored; gaily colored

   那塊布的顏色很鮮。 [MSC, trad.]
   那块布的颜色很鲜。 [MSC, simp.]

   Nà kuài bù de yánsè hěn xiān. [Pinyin]

   The color of that piece of cloth is very bright.

5. delicious; tasty

   媽媽煮的湯的味道很鮮。 [MSC, trad.]
   妈妈煮的汤的味道很鲜。 [MSC, simp.]

   Māmā zhǔ de tāng de wèidào hěn xiān. [Pinyin]

   The soup that mother cooked tastes delicious.

6. not yet withered; not yet wilted (of flowers, grass, etc.)

   鮮花／鲜花  ―  xiānhuā  ―  fresh flower

7. special; peculiar; strange and interesting

   屢見不鮮／屡见不鲜  ―  lǚjiànbùxiān  ―  common occurrence

   小孩說的話很鮮。 [MSC, trad.]
   小孩说的话很鲜。 [MSC, simp.]

   Xiǎohái shuō de huà hěn xiān. [Pinyin]

   The words of the child were peculiar.

8. (Hakka) thin; dilute
9. (Zhangzhou Hokkien) sky blue; azure

   鮮色／鲜色 [Hokkien]  ―  chheⁿ-sek [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  sky blue

10. a surname

• → Vietnamese: tươi

Etymology not clear (Schuessler, 2007).

鮮

1. rare; little; few

   • 量力而動，其過鮮矣。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     量力而动，其过鲜矣。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Commentary of Zuo, c. 4^th century BCE, translation from Zuozhuan: Commentary on the "Spring and Autumn Annals" (2017), by Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li and David Schaberg

     Liànglì ér dòng, qí guò xiǎn yǐ. [Pinyin]

     If one weighs one’s strength and then acts, one’s errors will be few.

2. rarely; infrequently

   • 子曰：「巧言令色，鮮矣仁！」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     子曰：「巧言令色，鲜矣仁！」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Zǐyuē: “Qiǎoyánlìngsè, xiǎn yǐ rén!” [Pinyin]

     The Master said, "Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue!"

3. to lack; to be short of
4. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 巘 / 𪩘 (yǎn, “the top of a mountain; cliff; small mountain”)

   • 度其鮮原，居岐之陽 [MSC, trad.]
     度其鲜原，居岐之阳 [MSC, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11th – 7th centuries BCE

     dù qí xiǎn yuán, jū qí zhī yáng [Pinyin]

     He determined the small mountains and hills, settling in the south of Qi

鮮

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 獻 / 献 (“to offer; to present”)

• “鮮”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• “鮮”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “鲜（新～）”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 214.

(Jōyō kanji)

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

• Go-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)
• Kun: あざやか (azayaka, 鮮やか, Jōyō)、すくない (sukunai, 鮮い)、あたらしい (atarashii, 鮮しい)

From Middle Chinese 鮮 (MC sjen|sjenX|sjenH).

• IPA^(key): [sẽ̞ɴ]

鮮(せん) • (sen) ^{←せん (sen)?}

1. fresh
2. vivid
3. (Empire of Japan) Korea

   全(ぜん)鮮(せん) ― zensen ― the entirety of Korea

   内(ない)鮮(せん)一体(いったい) ― naisen ittai ― unification of the mainland and Korea

鮮 (eumhun 고울 선 (goul seon))

1. hanja form^? of 선 (“smooth; fish”)

• 조선 (朝鮮, joseon, “Joseon; Korea”)
• 생선 (生鮮, saengseon, “fish”)
• 선혈 (鮮血, seonhyeol, “recently spilled blood”)

鮮: Hán Nôm readings: tiên, tắn

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