The character 味儿 is formed by combining the radical 口 (kǒu), meaning "mouth", which semantically links it to taste, smell, or speaking, with the phonetic component 未 (wèi), which historically provided an approximate sound cue. Together, they create a single, fused unit representing the concept of "flavor", "smell", or "character", where the meaning is suggested by the "mouth" radical and the pronunciation is loosely guided by the associated component.