wēn
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to be kind; to warm (archaic); the source form behind 温

Examples

Tā gěi wǒ dào le yì bēi wēnshuǐ.
She poured me a glass of warm water.

Tips

history
is the source form behind (warm) and is not used independently in modern Chinese. It pictures a vessel offered to a prisoner, an act of kindness, and gives the sound in (warm), (plague), (sullen / annoyed), and (to hold within).
register
Archaic. One old reading also files under a 'clear-headed' sense; the 'warm / kind' sense is the one that explains its large phonetic family.

Components

radical
mǐn
dish; vessel
The 'vessel' below holds the food or warm water given as an act of kindness; it is the indexing radical for .
ideograph
sun-shaped prisoner element
The top box is not the sun but a stylized figure in an enclosure — a captive — being offered the dish below in .

Stroke Order

wēn