氢

氫
qīng
noun #11,298

Meanings

  1. 1 hydrogen

Examples

HSK 6
Shuǐ shì yóu qīng hé yǎng zǔchéng de.
Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.
HSK 6
Qīngqì shì zuì qīng de qìtǐ.
Hydrogen gas is the lightest gas.

Tips

memory
Gas radical (气) + 轻 (light) phonetic = the lightest gas element. Chinese chemistry characters often encode properties: 氧 (life-giving gas = oxygen), 氮 (dilute gas = nitrogen).

Components

radical
气 qì
gas; air; breath
Outer wrap-around 气, pictograph of rising vapour. The indexing radical, used for every gaseous chemical element in modern Chinese chemistry: 氧 oxygen, 氮 nitrogen, 氯 chlorine, 氦 helium. Wraps around the inside from the top and right, leaving an open lower-left corner for the phonetic to sit in.
semantic
又 yòu
right hand (here a graphic top stroke)
Upper of the two strokes tucked inside 气, a small 又-shaped stroke on top of 工. Simplifiers compressed the original phonetic into this minimal 又+工 stack to keep the character lean. Read as a graphic placeholder topping the phonetic; carries no independent meaning.
phonetic
工 gōng
work; craft (phonetic)
Lower-inside 工, supplies a phonetic loosely connected to qīng through the historical reading of the original full phonetic now compressed away. 工 pictures a carpenter's square. Same coinage pattern as 氧 with 羊, 氮 with 炎: a small inside-character chosen to point at the sound.

Stroke Order

氢 qīng