niè
noun #12,671

Meanings

  1. 1 alunite (formerly used as a black dye)
  2. 2 (literary) to dye black

Examples

Nièpán shì fójiào de héxīn gàiniàn zhīyī.
Nirvana is one of the core concepts of Buddhism.

Tips

usage
Most commonly encountered in 涅槃 (nièpán, nirvana). The standalone character is rare in modern Chinese and mainly appears in literary or Buddhist contexts.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Left three-drop water radical — side-form of . Indexes in the wet-mineral family. The original meaning of was 'black mud at the bottom of a pond' — sediment used to dye cloth black or to tattoo skin. The water radical anchors that swampy origin. Same family: (dye), (steep), (mud).
phonetic
niè
sun-over-earth shape (rare standalone)
Right supplies the sound — niè unchanged. rarely stands alone — it stacks (sun) over (earth), used mainly as a phonetic here and in (pinch), (tread lightly). Beyond the literal black-mud meaning, is famous through 涅槃 (niè pán), the transliteration of Sanskrit 'nirvāṇa' — the Buddhist state of extinction-and-release.

Stroke Order

niè