Definitions

yīn to soak; to blot, to splotch

Etymology phono-semantic

water

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character 洇 is a phono-semantic compound, with the water radical 氵 on the left indicating its meaning category and the phonetic component 因 on the right providing its sound. It primarily describes a liquid soaking or spreading through a porous material, such as ink bleeding into paper. The water radical directly establishes the concept of fluid action, while 因 contributes only to pronunciation.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern