船
- boat, ship, vessel;
Etymology
Phono-semantic compound:
舟 (boat, ship) - semantic element, indicating “vessel.”
㕣 (phonetic element, 연) - provides the sound.
Thus the character represents “a vessel, a boat.”
Usage in Korean
船舶 (선박) — ship, vessel
漁船 (어선) — fishing boat
客船 (객선) — passenger ship
戰船 (전선) — warship
造船 (조선) — shipbuilding
Additional notes
This is the most common and general character for “boat/ship.”
For specialized types of ships, other characters are used (e.g., 艦 “large battleship”).
Variant/abbreviated form: 舩.
Sometimes mentioned in folk interpretations (e.g., “舟(boat) + 八(eight) + 口(mouths)” = Noah’s Ark with 8 people), but this is a folk etymology and not historically correct.
Alternative forms
𪮥 𬼔 𬜕 𰈧 𥂟
船
배
선
bae
seon
Kangxi radical:137, 舟 + 5
Strokes:11
Unicode:U+8239
Cangjie input:
- 竹卜金口 (HYCR)
- 竹卜竹弓口 (HYHNR)
Composition:
- ⿰ 舟 㕣