干旱
gān hàn · HSK 7
drought
🌵☀️ 干 = dry + 旱 = drought from sun (日 over 干)
Compound of 干 (dry) + 旱 (drought). The character 旱 stacks 日 (sun) on top of 干 (dry/stem), encoding sun-baked dryness. Together they name the parched, rainless condition: drought, arid.
干 — pictograph of a forked weapon/shield
干 originally depicted a forked wooden weapon or shield used in ancient warfare, giving the early sense of 'to offend' or 'to oppose.' Over time it took on extended meanings like 'to concern' and 'trunk/stem.' In modern simplified Chinese it also absorbed 乾 (dry) and 幹 (to do; trunk), so one character now covers several unrelated words.
旱 — sun 日 on top + 干 gān (phonetic, also 'dry')
A semantic-phonetic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning of dry, scorching weather, while 干 supplies the sound (gān → hàn) and reinforces the idea of dryness. The character has long meant 'drought' or 'dry spell,' as when the sun bakes the land and no rain falls.