Definitions

jǐng hydrazine

Etymology phono-semantic

organic compound

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character is a relatively modern phono-semantic compound coined as the Chinese translation for hydrazine, an inorganic compound. It combines the semantic radical (originally 'meat' or 'flesh') on the left, repurposed by modern chemists to signify organic nitrogen-containing compounds or amines, with the phonetic (jǐng) on the right, which supplies the pronunciation. The construction follows the chemical naming convention: the phonetic approximates the foreign pronunciation or systematic name, while the radical indicates the compound's chemical class.