yǎn
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) a kind of fine jade
  2. 2 (classical) the glitter of a jade tablet

Examples

Cài Yǎn shì Hàn mò cáihuá chūzhòng de nǚ shīrén.
Cai Yan was a gifted female poet at the end of the Han dynasty.

Tips

history
'fine jade' is not used independently in modern Chinese. It survives chiefly in given names, most famously the Han poet (Cai Wenji). It shares the phonetic with and .
register
Archaic and name-only, encountered as a personal name or in classical texts, not as a common word.

Components

radical
jade
On the left this is the jade radical (the form that loses its dot in compounds), not the king . It marks as a kind of jade.
phonetic
yán
flame; blaze
(two fires) supplies the sound, drifted to yǎn, and faintly suggests the sparkle of polished jade. The same phonetic appears in and .

Stroke Order

yǎn