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Free Online Kanji Etymology Dictionary
(A comprehensive Free Online Kanji Etymology Dictionary for the Web)
An Etymological Dictionary of Chinese Character Interpretations
By Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto
– Covering more than 6,500 Chinese characters as used in Japan –
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Kanji Search Results
万 (3)
バン ; マン
Alternate Form 萬
S/B 
S/B of 萬 is a pictograph of a scorpion, the curved tail of which contains virulent venom. Along with the introduction of Buddhism into China came the symbol 卍 (Sanskrit svastika, a good luck symbol). The Chinese gave 卍 the same pronunciation as 萬, and eventually 卍 came to be used as a simplified form of 萬. 万 is a SCR stylization of 卍, and ten thousand is a borrowing, the sound expressing the idea of a long string (→ long string of numbers) → numberless. The idea of a long string likely was derived from the appearance of a scorpion's tail, which is divided into multiple segments.
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