About
The character 霭, meaning mist or haze, appears in its traditional form as 靄. It combines the rain radical 雨, which places it in the category of weather phenomena, with the phonetic component 藹. The simplified form replaces the complex lower element 藹 with the structurally lighter 蔼, preserving the phonetic value while reducing the stroke count. The rain radical anchors the character's meaning to atmospheric conditions, and its usage consistently describes dense vapors or obscuring haze. This structure allows the character to function as both a phonetic and semantic unit for atmospheric haze.
Etymology Hide
