The kanji 駄 generally conveys the meaning of "worthless," "useless," "inferior," or "a pack animal's load." It often implies something that is of poor quality, burdensome, or not valuable.

・On-yomi (音読み): だ (da) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None commonly used.

⚫︎駄作 (ださく) Translation: A poor work; a failure. ⚫︎駄菓子 (だがし) Translation: Cheap sweets; penny candy. ⚫︎駄目 (だめ) Translation: No good; useless; hopeless.

The kanji 駄 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). The semantic part is 馬 (うま), meaning "horse," and the phonetic part is 牙 (が), which doesn't directly relate to the meaning but provides a sound element. The original meaning relates to the burden or load carried by a pack animal, hence the association with "useless" or "inferior" as the load can be seen as an unnecessary burden.