The kanji 刊 primarily conveys the meaning of "to publish," "to print," or "to issue." It's fundamentally associated with the act of making something available to the public, typically in printed form.

・On-yomi (音読み): カン (kan) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None, or rarely used as a standalone kun-yomi.

⚫︎ 週刊誌 Translation: Weekly magazine. ⚫︎ 刊行 Translation: Publication; to publish; to issue. ⚫︎ 創刊号 Translation: The first issue; the inaugural issue.

The kanji 刊 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). The left side is 干 (kan), which originally meant "shield" but later evolved to represent "dried" or "to dry." The right side is 刂, the "knife" radical (also called りっとう, rittou). The original meaning was related to engraving or carving onto a surface. The 干 provided the sound, and 刂indicated the action of cutting. Over time, the meaning evolved to represent printing and publishing, reflecting the process of making something public through printed media.