慢 frame 829
漫 frame 830

I am really having a hard time with these kanji's, both in meaning and in story. First, does anyone know what these kanji really mean?

For example, 慢 is used in:

自慢 【じまん】 (n,vs,adj-no) pride; boast; (P) 我慢 【がまん】 (n,vs) patience; endurance; perseverance; tolerance; self-control; self-denial; (P) 怠慢 【たいまん】 (adj-na,n) negligence; procrastination; carelessness; (P) 慢性 【まんせい】 (n,adj-no) chronicity; chronic; (P) 慢性的 【まんせいてき】 (adj-na) chronic; (P)

and 漫 is used in 漫画 【まんが】 (n) comic; cartoon; (P) 散漫 【さんまん】 (adj-na,n) vague; desultory; distracted; loose; half-hearted; diffuse; (P)

I guess "loose" is a decent keyword for 漫, but I am not sure about "ridicule" for 慢.

Can anyone shed some light on these kanji?

Somehow, I find it very japanese-ish to use "self ridicule" for boasting...

yeah i thought of that... but i don't know if i am satisfied.

[Katsuo]

Halpern's New Japanese-English character dictionary defines them as follows:

829 慢 (Halpern 686): arrogant, sluggish
830 漫 (Halpern 700): rambling, comic

This dictionary, like Heisig, tries to define each kanji with a word or short phrase in English. It differs from Heisig in that (1) The same English word may be used more than once. (2) When a kanji has two or more main meanings they may both (all) be given, as in the examples above. (3) The meanings are more accurate.

Interesting Katsuo. I think I am liking the definition of "arrogant." as well as "rambling."

Is there any site online that can give definitions like that that anyone knows of? Also, is that kanji book as big as it looks?