About
焓 is a modern phono-semantic compound created for the thermodynamic concept of enthalpy. It combines the semantic radical 火 (huǒ, "fire, heat"), tying it to thermal energy, with 含 (hán, "contain"), which supplies the pronunciation and suggests heat content. Coined during the translation of Western physics and chemistry, it lacks any classical etymology. Its sole use is in scientific contexts to denote the total heat content of a system, internal energy plus the product of pressure and volume.
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