稔 (rěn): (literary) ripe (of grain); a y…

Meanings

1 (literary) ripe (of grain); a year's harvest
2 (literary) familiar; well-acquainted with

Characters

稔

rěn

ripe grain; familiar

Examples

五谷丰稔，百姓安乐。

Wǔ gǔ fēng rěn, bǎixìng ānlè.

The five grains ripen abundantly; the people live in peace and joy.

他对这一带的山路十分稔熟。

Tā duì zhè yīdài de shānlù shífēn rěn shú.

He is thoroughly familiar with the mountain paths around here.

Tips

memory

Radical is 禾 (grain) — the original sense is 'grain ripening,' which extended metaphorically to 'long acquaintance ripening into familiarity' (稔熟 rěnshú = well-acquainted).

register

Almost exclusively literary or in fixed compounds: 丰稔 (bountiful harvest), 稔知 (to know well), 稔熟 (intimately familiar). Not used as a free word in modern speech.

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; standing crop

Left 禾 — pictograph of a stalk of grain bending under the weight of its ripe ear. As the indexing radical it carries the literal meaning: a 稔 is a year's grain harvest, especially when ripe. Same radical groups 稔 with 稻 rice, 稀 sparse, 秋 autumn.

phonetic

念 niàn

to think of; to recite (here phonetic)

Right 念 supplies the sound — niàn shifting to rěn through an old n/r alternation. The semantic flavour 'to keep in mind' also feeds the secondary literary sense of 稔: to be familiar with, well-acquainted — knowing something the way a farmer knows his crop.