洁

Three-drops water radical on the left, the side form of 水 - three abbreviated waves. Indexes 洁 in the water family alongside 河 river, 海 sea, 洗 to wash. Carries the meaning: cleanliness in classical thought is water-wrought, things rinsed pure by flowing water rather than scrubbed dry.

Right side 吉 supplies the sound: jí shifted to jié with finals change. 吉 also adds semantic flavour - auspicious purity, the moral cleanness of an upright scholar - which dovetails with 洁's meaning. The simplified form 洁 replaces the traditional 潔 phonetic 絜; modern 洁 reads as 'auspicious water', pure and well-omened.