碾 (niǎn) · to grind, to crush, to roll over

Meanings

1 to grind
2 to crush
3 to roll over
4 to husk

Characters

碾

niǎn

to grind; stone roller

Examples

HSK 7-9

用石磨碾米。

Yòng shímò niǎn mǐ.

Use a stone mill to grind rice.

HSK 7-9

那辆卡车差点碾过他。

Nà liàng kǎchē chàdiǎn niǎn guò tā.

That truck nearly ran over him.

Tips

memory

碾 has the 石 (stone) radical on the left - grinding was traditionally done with a stone roller.

Components

radical

石 shí

stone

Left-side stone radical - pictograph of a rock under a cliff overhang. The indexing radical, and here perfectly literal: a 碾 is a stone roller, the heavy cylindrical mill once turned over grain on a flat slab. By extension the verb means to crush, grind, pulverise. Same family of mineral-action characters: 磨 to grind, 砸 to smash, 砖 brick.

phonetic

展 zhǎn

unfold; spread

Right side 展 supplies the sound - zhǎn to niǎn, a shift via old z/n alternation, systematic enough to be the agreed phonetic. 展 also adds a faint semantic flavour: spreading something out flat is exactly what a grain-roller does. Same phonetic appears in 辗 to toss and turn (sleeplessly rolling).