嵌

qiàn
verb #13,007

Meanings

  1. 1 to inlay
  2. 2 to embed

Examples

HSK 7-9
Jièzhi shàng qiàn zhe yì kē zuànshí.
A diamond is embedded in the ring.

Tips

usage
In tech contexts, 嵌入 means 'to embed' and 嵌入式 means 'embedded (system)'.

Components

radical
山 shān
mountain
Mountain radical at the top - the indexing radical, pictograph of three peaks. The classical sense of 嵌 was 'a deep mountain hollow,' a recess cut into a rock face. From that came the modern verb 'to inlay, to set into a hollow' - exactly how a jeweller fits a stone into the carved-out socket of a setting. Same radical caps 岩 (cliff), 岭 (ridge), 峰 (peak).
semantic
甘 gān
sweet
Lower-left 甘 - sweet, pictograph of a mouth with a dot of food held on the tongue. Pure semantic contribution in this fused right side: it pairs with 欠 to form an old phonetic 欠+甘 stack used in 嵌's traditional reading. Contributes the rounded, held-in-place sense that fits something nestled into a hollow.
phonetic
欠 qiàn
to owe; lack
Lower-right 欠 supplies the sound qiàn directly - a person bent forward with an open mouth, originally 'to yawn.' Same phonetic feeds 歉 (apology), 钦 (admire). Together with 甘 above it forms the right-hand stack of 嵌, riding the mountain radical above to give 'a deep nesting hollow set in a mountain.'

Stroke Order

嵌 qiàn