缅 (miǎn) · distant; remote

Meanings

1 distant; remote
2 Myanmar / Burma

Characters

缅

miǎn

distant; Myanmar

Examples

HSK 6

他缅怀逝去的亲人。

Tā miǎnhuái shìqù de qīnrén.

He fondly remembers his departed relatives.

HSK 7-9

中缅边境贸易很活跃。

Zhōng Miǎn biānjìng màoyì hěn huóyuè.

China–Myanmar border trade is very active.

Tips

usage

On its own 缅 rarely appears in modern speech. You meet it in compounds: 缅怀 (miǎnhuái, to remember fondly), 缅甸 (Miǎndiàn, Myanmar), and as the country abbreviation 缅 in headlines like 中缅 (China–Myanmar).

memory

The 糸 (silk) radical hints at 'a long thread reaching far away' - fitting for both 'remote' and the long border with Myanmar.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread

纟 is the left-side simplified silk radical (糸 in standalone form). It marks 缅 as a thread-and-distance word - the original sense was a fine, far-stretched thread, from which the senses remote and to recall (mind reaching back) developed. Family: 绵 (cotton), 线 (line), 绳 (rope).

phonetic

面 miàn

face; surface

面 (miàn) supplies the sound - initial preserved, rime shifted -iàn to -iǎn with tone change. The same phonetic also drives 棉 (cotton plant), reinforcing the silk-thread imagery in 缅. Used today mostly for Burma (缅甸) and the literary verb to recall (缅怀).