寅 is the third Earthly Branch, paired with the Tiger in the zodiac. It names the pre-dawn double-hour and combines with the Heavenly Stems for years like 丙寅 and 戊寅. A classical extended sense is 'respectful'.
Components
ideograph
寅yín
third Earthly Branch
Treated as a single unit. The modern shape, a roof over a stylized core, no longer maps cleanly onto its origin (it is thought to have once pictured an arrow). Indexed under the roof radical 宀 by tradition, though the calendrical meaning is not transparent from the parts.
Filed under radical 宀 (mián, #40) by convention. 宀 is not a separate component in 寅, so no strokes are highlighted.
