• 漫画まんが — manga; comics
• 漫才まんざい — comic dialogue
• 漫遊まんゆう — rambling trip
• 散漫さんまん — distracted; loose
• 漫然まんぜん — aimless; vague
• 漫談まんだん — chatty talk

漫 combines the water radical 氵 with 曼 (マン, “extended / long-drawn”). It suggests something spreading out broadly, without restriction—like overflowing water. By extension, it came to mean “loose, freewheeling,” and in modern usage connects to art forms like 漫画 (manga), originally meaning “whimsical drawings.”