溺 (nì): to drown

Meanings

1 to drown
2 to indulge (in)
3 to be addicted to
4 to spoil (a child)

Characters

溺

nì

to drown; to indulge; to be submerged

Examples

HSK 5

他差点儿溺死在河里。

Tā chàdiǎnr nìsǐ zài hélǐ.

He nearly drowned in the river.

HSK 5

父母过分溺爱孩子，对孩子的成长不利。

Fùmǔ guòfèn nì'ài háizi, duì háizi de chéngzhǎng bùlì.

Parents who excessively spoil their children are not helping their development.

Tips

usage

溺 has two key uses: literal drowning (溺死 = to drown) and figurative indulgence (溺爱 = to spoil/dote on excessively; 沉溺 = to be immersed/lost in something). The water radical 氵 connects both meanings - being submerged.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Three-drops water radical on the left, side form of 水. Indexes 溺 in the immersion family alongside 沉 (sink), 浸 (soak), 淹 (flood). The radical does the heavy semantic work here: every literal sense of 溺 - drowning, being submerged, indulging excessively - starts with being engulfed by water.

phonetic

弱 ruò

weak; feeble

Right 弱 supplies the sound ruò drifting historically to nì. It also lends a clean semantic flavour: someone weak in the water cannot stay afloat. The fused image - water plus weakness - gives 溺 both 'drown' literally and 'be helplessly indulgent' figuratively (溺爱).