yán
noun #54,739

Meanings

  1. 1 eaves
  2. 2 brim; ledge

Characters

Examples

Yǔshuǐ cóng wūyán shàng dī xiàlái.
Rain dripped down from the eaves.
Wūyán xià yǒu yí gè yànzi wō.
A swallow built its nest under the eaves.

Tips

usage
Most common in 屋檐 (eaves of a house). A well-known proverb says that when you are under someone else's 屋檐, you have to bow your head, meaning you must yield when you depend on others.

Components

radical
tree; wood
Left wood radical. Eaves are the wooden edge of a roof, so the radical records the building material and groups with other timber-structure characters like and .
phonetic
zhān
verbose; (surname)
Right supplies the sound — zhān drifting to yán. It contributes no meaning here; the same phonetic appears in and .

Stroke Order

yán