痕 (hén): mark

Meanings

1 mark
2 trace
3 scar

Characters

痕

hén

mark; trace; scar

Examples

桌子上有一道痕。

Zhuōzi shàng yǒu yīdào hén.

There is a mark on the table.

泪痕还留在她的脸上。

Lèi hén hái liú zài tā de liǎnshàng.

Tear marks are still on her face.

Tips

usage

痕 is often used in compounds: 伤痕 (scar), 痕迹 (trace/vestige), 泪痕 (tear stain), 裂痕 (crack/rift). Rarely used alone in modern speech.

Components

radical

疒 nè

sickness; ailment radical

Outer sickness radical, a pictograph of a person reclining on a bed (originally 爿 'bed' rotated). It marks 痕 as something on the body — originally a scar, the lingering trace of an injury or disease. From 'scar' the meaning generalised to 'mark, trace, vestige' of any kind (痕迹 trace, 伤痕 scar). The radical anchors the whole illness family: 病, 疼, 痛, 疲, 痒, 疯.

phonetic

艮 gěn

mountain; stop (here phonetic)

Inner 艮 supplies the sound — gěn shifted to hén, regular Old Chinese velar/glottal alternation in this series. 艮 also lends a faint semantic flavour of fixedness, of something that stops and stays put, which echoes the lingering quality of a scar or mark. Same phonetic family: 痕, 恨 (hate), 限 (limit), 根 (root), 跟 (follow).