绢 (juàn): thin, tough silk fabric; silk

Meanings

1 thin, tough silk fabric; silk

Characters

绢

juàn

thin silk fabric

Examples

这幅画是画在绢上的。

Zhè fú huà shì huà zài juàn shàng de.

This painting was done on silk.

古代的书信有时写在绢上。

Gǔdài de shūxìn yǒushí xiě zài juàn shàng.

In ancient times, letters were sometimes written on silk.

Tips

culture

Silk painting (绢本画) is a major tradition in Chinese art. Many of the most famous classical paintings were done on silk rather than paper.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread

Left silk radical, the simplified 3-stroke form of 糸 (twisted silk filaments). Indexes 绢 in the silk-and-fabric family (绸 silk, 缎 satin, 绣 embroidery) and pins the word firmly to woven cloth - specifically a thin, tough plain-weave silk used historically for painting scrolls and royal letters.

phonetic

肙 yuān

small worm

Right 肙 - a tiny worm graph, here functioning purely as a phonetic frame supplying juàn through an older yuān / juān reading shift. Same phonetic appears in 涓 trickle, 鹃 cuckoo, 捐 to donate, 娟 graceful. Carries no worm-meaning into 绢.