About
The character 燃, meaning to burn, originates from the earlier character 然, which itself conveyed the idea of burning due to its component 灬 symbolizing fire at the base. As 然 was increasingly borrowed for grammatical functions such as expressing affirmation or manner, the more specialized 燃 was formed by adding the fire radical 火 to the left of 然 to explicitly indicate combustion. Structurally, 燃 is a phono-semantic compound where 火 denotes the semantic domain of fire and 然 provides both phonetic value and its original fiery association. This differentiation led to 燃 assuming the core meaning of burning, while 然 shifted toward usage as an adverb or particle.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
森林燃烧了很久。
汽车需要燃料。
我们燃放了烟花。
燃气灶很方便。
发动机燃烧燃油。
他的热情被点燃了。
这种材料不易燃烧。
内燃机是现代工业的基础。