cān

to take part in

to participate; to join; to attend; to counsel; unequal; varied; irregular; uneven; not uniform; abbr. for 參議院|参议院 Senate, Upper House; old variant of 參|参[can1]

private (厶) + person (大) = joining in, taking part

The image is of a private individual stepping forward to engage with something larger than themselves. 彡 is phonetic here, giving cān its sound rather than adding meaning.

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PrivateSemantic
BigSemantic
StreaksPhonetic

她明天要加一个重要的会议。

tā míng tiān yào cān jiā yī gè zhòng yào de huì yì 。

She is going to attend an important meeting tomorrow.

他决定与这个新项目的设计工作。

tā jué dìng cān yù zhè gè xīn xiàng mù de shè jì gōng zuò 。

He decided to participate in the design work of this new project.

Words with 参

高参

gāo cān

senior staff officer; staff officer of great talent

高丽参

gāo lí shēn

Koryo ginseng

党参

dǎng shēn

poor man's ginseng (Codonopsis pilosula)

丹参

dān shēn

(botany) red sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza)

人参

rén shēn

ginseng

人参果

rén shēn guǒ

fictional fruit in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West 西遊記|西游记[Xi1 you2 ji4]

传参

chuán cān

to pass an argument (computing) (abbr. for 傳遞參數|传递参数[chuan2 di4 can1 shu4])

仅作参考

jǐn zuò cān kǎo

for reference only

仅供参考

jǐn gōng cān kǎo

for reference only

内参

nèi cān

restricted document, available only to certain individuals such as high-ranking Party officials (abbr. for 內部參考|内部参考)

参加

cān jiā

to participate

参加者

cān jiā zhě

participant

More characters with 厶