氩 (yà): argon (chemical element, Ar)

Meanings

1 argon (chemical element, Ar)
2 noble gas number 18

Characters

氩

yà

argon

Examples

氩气常用于焊接保护。

Yà qì chángyòng yú hànjiē bǎohù.

Argon gas is commonly used as a shielding gas in welding.

白炽灯泡里通常充入氩气。

Báichì dēngpào lǐ tōngcháng chōng rù yà qì.

Incandescent light bulbs are usually filled with argon gas.

Tips

memory

Almost every Chinese gas-element name takes the 气 (gas) radical: 氢 hydrogen, 氧 oxygen, 氮 nitrogen, 氦 helium, 氖 neon, 氩 argon. The phonetic component 亚 gives the pronunciation. So 气 + 亚 → 氩 = 'the gas pronounced yà' = argon. Argon is colorless, inert, and makes up about 0.94% of Earth's atmosphere.

Components

radical

气 qì

gas; vapour (radical)

Outer gas radical hooking around the top - the indexing radical. Pictures rising vapour curling away. Anchors 氩 in the modern gas-elements family with 氢 hydrogen, 氧 oxygen, 氮 nitrogen, 氦 helium, 氖 neon. Whenever a Chinese chemistry term names a gaseous element, 气 is the standard outer wrapper.

phonetic

亚 yà

second; inferior

Inside 亚 supplies the sound yà, an exact match with no drift, chosen to align with the Latin Argon. The 'second-rate, asia' sense plays no part in the meaning; pure modern phonetic peg. 气 + 亚 is a Republican-era coinage of the Chinese chemistry vocabulary, modelled after foreign element names.