yíng
adjective #32,874

Meanings

  1. 1 glimmering; twinkling
  2. 2 fluorescent (in compounds)
  3. 3 (arch.) firefly light; planet Mars

Examples

Yèkōng zhōng xīngguāng yíng yíng.
Starlight twinkles in the night sky.
Diànshì yíngpíng shàng chūxiàn le tā de míngzi.
Her name appeared on the TV screen.

Tips

usage
On its own is rare; you'll usually meet it in compounds: 荧光 (yíngguāng, fluorescent light), 荧屏 (yíngpíng, TV/computer screen), (yíngyíng, glimmering). The original meaning is the faint light of a candle or firefly.
memory
Spot the (grass) radical on top — a hint at its old link to (yíng, firefly), which has the same lower component. Both come from the image of tiny lights flickering in grass at night.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; vegetation
is the indexing top grass radical, but here it is graphic residue from the simplification of — the original had two stacked at the top, and the 1956 reform compressed that double-fire into the simpler silhouette. Read it as stylised flames, not literal grass.
semantic
cover; cap
is the cover radical, a flat lid drawn across the middle. It separates the flames above from the fire below — picturing a shielded flame, the kind of hooded glow that lights up softly in the dark. The whole graph reads as a covered light, fitting 's firefly meaning.
semantic
huǒ
fire
sits at the base in its full standalone form — the literal fire under the cover. Together with the flame-residue above and lid in the middle, it completes the lantern-glow picture: a shielded blaze that becomes the metaphor for fluorescent light and firefly luminescence (荧光, 荧屏).

Stroke Order

yíng