About
The character 溴 (xiù) is a modern phono-semantic compound created to represent the chemical element bromine, following the convention for non-metallic liquid elements. Its semantic radical 氵 (shuǐ), meaning water, indicates the element’s liquid state at room temperature. The component 臭 (chòu), meaning a foul smell, functions both as a phonetic element and a semantic clue to bromine’s strong, bleach-like odor. This character illustrates how modern scientific terms are integrated into the traditional system of Chinese character formation.