About
The character "涂" originally represented a water name, with its form combining the water radical "氵" on the left with the component "余" on the right, which primarily served a phonetic function. Its earliest core meaning was "mud" or "mire", a sense directly connected to its water-related composition. From this concrete foundation, the character's meaning expanded into a verb denoting the action of applying or smearing a substance, such as plaster, paint, or mud, onto a surface. This semantic shift from a noun describing a substance to a verb describing an action involving that substance represents a logical and common pattern of linguistic development. Further abstraction led to its use in words related to blotting out or scribbling over, as in altering text, and it also functions in certain compound words as a transliteration for foreign sounds.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我在纸上涂颜色。
她涂抹防晒霜。
工人正在涂油漆。
孩子们喜欢涂鸦。
他用刷子涂涂料。
为了防止生锈，他涂了层油。
如果你涂得太厚，油漆会滴下来。
艺术家用独特的技巧涂抹出美丽的画面。