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鎏

liú
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (literary) fine pure gold
  2. 2 (literary) to gild; gilding

Examples

那盏铜灯上饰有一层鎏金。
Nà zhǎn tóngdēng shàng shì yǒu yìcéng liújīn.
The bronze lamp was decorated with a layer of fire-gilding.

Tips

history
Rare as a standalone word in modern Chinese. It survives mainly in 鎏金 (fire-gilding, the ancient mercury-amalgam gold plating seen on bronzes); it is also a variant of 镏.
culture
鎏金 was a prized craft from the Warring States period on; museum bronzes labeled this way still carry their ancient gilded shine.

Components

radical
金 jīn
gold; metal
The full 金 radical sits at the bottom, fixing the meaning as pure gold and a gold-plating technique.
phonetic
流 liú
to flow
The top 流 gives the sound liú exactly, and its 'flow' sense suits molten gold flowing over a surface in gilding.

Stroke Order

鎏 liú