qián
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (literary) a seal; an official stamp
  2. 2 (literary) to affix a seal; a door latch

Examples

Shūfǎ zuòpǐn zài xià jiǎo qián shàng le yìnzhāng.
The calligraphy work was finished with the artist's seal affixed at the lower corner.

Tips

history
is literary and rarely used alone, surviving in terms like 钤印 ('to affix a seal', common in art and antiques) and (an official's small seal). The everyday word for a seal is 印章.
register
Literary and specialist — calligraphy, seals, and old documents; not everyday speech.

Components

radical
jīn
metal
is the metal radical in left-side form — seals and latches are metal objects.
phonetic
jīn
now; today
gives the sound (drifted to qián). The same phonetic appears in (a zither) and (to hold in the mouth).

Stroke Order

qián