印 (yìn): to print; to stamp

Meanings

1 to print; to stamp
2 seal; mark; imprint
3 India (abbreviation)

Characters

印

yìn

seal; stamp; to print

Examples

请帮我打印这个文件。

Qǐng bāng wǒ dǎyìn zhège wénjiàn.

Please help me print this document.

第一印象很重要。

Dìyī yìnxiàng hěn zhòngyào.

First impressions are important.

这本书印了多少本？

Zhè běnshū yìn le duōshao běn?

How many copies of this book were printed?

Tips

usage

印 is used in: 打印 (to print), 印象 (impression), 印刷 (printing), 手印 (fingerprint), 印度 (India). The character originally depicted a hand pressing down on a kneeling person — the act of stamping a seal.

Components

radical

卩 jié

kneeling person; seal

卩 — a kneeling person, also meaning seal — is the indexing radical. The surface or subordinate being stamped. The pairing of pressing hand on the left and kneeling figure on the right visually captures the entire action of authoritative imprint, the seed of all 印 senses.

semantic

爫 zhǎo

downward claw / pressing hand (radical form)

Left half is a downward-pressing hand (the claw form 爫, top-position variant of 爪), depicting the act of stamping. Combined with the kneeling figure on the right, the character pictures one party pressing a seal onto another — the original seal-of-authority image.