干 部首 51 — a forked shield or pole-weapon; to offend against; in simplified writing also 乾 gān "dry" and 幹 gàn "to do, a trunk"

Where the shape comes from

A forked pole used to fend off a blow and to strike back with — a weapon and a shield at once, which is why the word also came to mean "to offend against". Its own section is small but well used: 年 is filed here, along with 平, 并 and 幸. Simplified writing then piled two more words onto the same three strokes, so 干 now writes "dry" (干净) and "to do" (干活) as well.

汉字 filed under 干

• 年nián (second tone, rising)year; age, years of a person’s life; the annual harvest (original sense)6