黾 (mǐn): (literary) to strive; to exert…

Meanings

1 (literary) to strive; to exert oneself (chiefly in 黾勉 miǎnmiǎn)
2 (read měng) frog; toad — original meaning, now archaic

Characters

黾

mǐn

to strive; (archaic) frog

Pictograph of a frog seen from above — body, four legs, and tail-tip all visible in the original graph.

Examples

他黾勉从事，几十年如一日。

Tā miǎn miǎn cóngshì, jǐshí nián rúyī rì.

He worked tirelessly, decade after decade with the same dedication.

Tips

usage

Modern Chinese mostly uses 黾 inside the literary compound 黾勉 (miǎnmiǎn, to strive / make a sustained effort), familiar from 《诗经·邶风·谷风》's 'miǎnmiǎn tóngxīn' line. Standalone 黾 — read měng — meaning 'frog' is now nearly extinct outside classical zoological texts.

history

The graph is a pictograph of a frog in plan view — the four legs splayed, the round body in the middle. The 'strive' meaning is a phonetic loan that displaced the original animal sense over time. As Kangxi radical #205 it indexes amphibian and reptile names: 鼋 (large turtle), 鼍 (Chinese alligator), 鼈 (turtle / soft-shelled, simplified 鳖).

Components

pictograph

黾 mǐn

frog; toad (archaic); to strive

Pictograph of a frog or toad viewed from above — wide body, four splayed legs, a head with eyes. Itself Kangxi radical #205, indexing characters about amphibians and reptiles (鼋 soft-shell turtle, 鼍 alligator). The single-glyph form does not decompose; visual breakdowns into 口+电 are graphic accidents of stroke reform, not real components.

Radical

Frog Kangxi #205

An indexing radical for amphibians, reptiles, and shelled water animals. Compounds: 鼋 (large soft-shelled turtle), 鼍 (Chinese alligator), 鼈 (snapping turtle, simplified 鳖). The radical's primary reading miǎn comes from a classical loan; the original frog reading is měng. Productive in classical zoological vocabulary, rare in everyday Chinese.