馥 (fù): fragrance

Meanings

1 fragrance
2 scent
3 aroma

Characters

馥

fù

fragrance

Examples

HSK 6

园中花香四馥。

Yuán zhōng huāxiāng sì fù.

The fragrance of flowers fills the garden.

HSK 7-9

她名叫馥莉，取自馥郁芬芳。

Tā míngjiào Fù lì, qǔ zì fùyù fēnfāng.

Her name is Fuli, taken from 馥郁 - 'rich fragrance'.

Tips

usage

Literary character - rarely standalone in modern Chinese. Lives mostly in the compound 馥郁 ('rich and fragrant') and as a poetic/personal-name character (e.g. actress 邵馥). Note the 香 (fragrance) radical on the left - a semantic clue.

Components

radical

香 xiāng

fragrant; sweet-smelling

Left fragrance radical - 香 itself, originally 黍 millet over 甘 sweet, naming the rich smell of cooked grain. Kangxi #186. Indexes 馥 in the smell family with 馨 fragrance. 馥 means a dense, layered, long-lasting aroma - exactly the perfumed sense the radical anchors.

phonetic

复 fù

to return; repeat

Right side 复 supplies the sound fù exactly. 复 means 'to repeat, to come back,' which adds a quiet semantic flavour: 馥 is the kind of fragrance that returns wave after wave - lingering, recurring on the breeze. Often paired as 馥郁 'thickly fragrant,' describing perfume or rich flowers.