犯

Core sense: Encroachment; the act of crossing a boundary that should not be crossed.

• Legal/Statutory: To violate a law, breach a regulation, or commit a crime.
• Physical/Spatial: To trespass, encroach upon territory, or physically bump into/touch something.
• Social/Hierarchical: To overstep one's rank or offend a superior (e.g., 犯上), denoting insolence and the intrusion into a social space where the actor does not belong.
• Medical: The recurrence or "attack" of a disease (e.g., 犯病).

• Transitivity: Primarily functions as a transitive verb.
• Noun Usage: While often glossed as "criminal," in early texts the glyph typically denotes the act of transgression. When referring to a person, it usually functions as an attribute or requires a clear classifier/contextual marker.

• 犯: The active motion of crossing a line; the act of transgression.
• 過: A mistake, lapse, or error; often implies an unintentional fault.
• 罪: The state of guilt, sin, or legal culpability resulting from a crime.

• Readings: Fanqie 防錽; Tang-period bhiæ̌m.
• Early Texts: In pre-Qin contexts, be mindful of the possibility of phonetic loaning, though the core sense of encroachment is generally stable.