渍 (zì): stain; mark

Meanings

1 stain; mark
2 to soak; to steep
3 floodwater

Characters

渍

zì

stain; to soak

Examples

衣服上有油渍。

Yīfu shàng yǒu yóu zì.

There's an oil stain on the clothes.

这个污渍很难洗掉。

Zhège wūzì hěn nán xǐ diào.

This stain is hard to wash out.

Tips

usage

Usually appears in compounds: 油渍 (grease stain), 污渍 (stain/smudge), 血渍 (bloodstain), 茶渍 (tea stain).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Left three-drop water radical — side-form of 水 (Kangxi #85). Indexes 渍 in the liquid family: 浸 (steep), 沾 (moisten), 染 (dye), 泡 (soak). Anchors the meaning: a stain is liquid that has soaked in, and to 渍 something is to leave it in liquid until it absorbs the substance.

phonetic

责 zé

duty; demand (here phonetic)

Right 责 supplies the sound — zé shifted to zì, the regular drift in this phonetic family. 责 itself stacks 主 (master) over 贝 (money) for 'demand payment'; the meaning doesn't carry. Same phonetic in 债 (debt), 啧 (click of tongue), 帻 (head-cloth). The common compounds 油渍 (oil stain), 血渍 (blood stain), 腌渍 (to pickle) all live on the absorbing-liquid sense.