méng
noun #18,622

Meanings

  1. 1 oath
  2. 2 alliance
  3. 3 league

Examples

Liánméng
alliance; union
Tóngméng
alliance; pact

Tips

usage
(dish) below — blood oath over a ritual vessel

Components

radical
mǐn
vessel; bowl
Bottom is the vessel radical, indexing . In bronze-age oath-taking rites, allies smeared blood from a sacrificial dish on their lips — 歃血为盟. The bowl below pictures that very vessel; the character is a literal record of how alliances were sealed. Same vessel-family: basin, plate, to fill.
phonetic
míng
bright; clear
Top supplies the sound — míng drifting to méng with vowel shift, a regular nasal-final alternation visible across the same series ( sprout, ). itself is sun + moon, the iconic bright-compound; its top role here is mostly phonetic but the 'open, clear' flavour fits the ritual: oaths sworn in daylight before witnesses.

Stroke Order

méng