腌 (yān): to pickle; to marinate; to cure…

Meanings

1 to pickle; to marinate; to cure (with salt)
2 to preserve (food) in salt, brine, or sauce

Characters

腌

yān

to pickle; to salt; to cure

Examples

HSK 3

奶奶每年冬天都会腌白菜。

Nǎinai měinián dōngtiān dōu huì yān báicài.

Grandma pickles cabbage every winter.

HSK 3

这块肉需要腌两个小时。

Zhè kuài ròu xūyào yān liǎng gè xiǎoshí.

This piece of meat needs to be marinated for two hours.

HSK 7-9

腌好的萝卜又酸又脆。

Yān hǎo de luóbo yòu suān yòu cuì.

The pickled radish is both sour and crunchy.

Tips

culture

Pickling (腌制) is fundamental to Chinese cuisine. Famous pickled foods include 腌菜 (pickled vegetables), 腌肉 (cured meat), 咸鸭蛋 (salted duck eggs), and 泡菜 (pickled cabbage). Every region has its own pickling traditions.

usage

腌 covers salting, brining, and marinating. For wet marinating (like a sauce marinade), 腌 and 泡 (to soak) both work. 腌制 is the more formal compound form.

Components

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh; meat (radical form of 肉)

Left-side meat radical, the side form of 肉, visually identical to 月 (moon) but historically a slab of striated flesh. Carries the meaning: 腌 is what you do to meat and fish (and pickled vegetables) to preserve them. Same family: 肉 meat, 肝 liver, 肠 intestine, 肚 belly.

phonetic

奄 yǎn

to cover; suddenly

Right side 奄 supplies the sound: yǎn → yān with tone shift. The 'cover, envelop' meaning of 奄 also resonates faintly with pickling: salt blankets the flesh until it cures. Same phonetic appears in 淹 to flood, 庵 hermitage, 掩 to cover up.