～遍
～へん · ～hen · JLPT N2 · noun
time
📖 辶 walk + 扁: walk the whole route = one full time through
遍 originally meant everywhere, covering all of it. As a counter it counts complete run-throughs, such as reading a text from start to finish: 一遍 (ippen) is once through, 三遍 (sanben) is three times through. The h changes to p or b after some numbers.
遍 — 辶 (walk) + 扁 (flat/phonetic)
遍 is a phono-semantic compound. The 辶 radical signals motion or going, while 扁 supplies the sound (related to biǎn/biàn). The original sense of moving over an area gave rise to the modern meaning 'everywhere' or 'one time through'.